cock-shy colloq.
(ˈkɒkˌʃaɪ)
[f. cock n.1 + shy v. or n.]
1. Applied to cock-throwing and similar games with cocks.
| [1794 Brand Pop. Antiq. I. (1813) s.v. Shrovetide, The person who throws..has three shys, or throws, for two pence, and wins the Cock if he can knock him down and run up and catch him before the bird recovers his legs..Broomsticks are generally used to shy with.] 1851 Mayhew Lond. Labour II. 55 (Hoppe) The shrovetide cockshy, or the duck-hunt. 1883 Globe 22 Mar. 2/1 The populace took ‘cockshies’ at it..he who broke the vessel and liberated the bird being rewarded with it. |
2. A free throw or ‘shy’ at an object set up for the purpose, as a form of amusement. Also transf. and attrib.
| 1836 Marryat Japhet lxvii, They proposed a cockshy, as they called it; that is, I was to place my articles on the top of a post, and they were to throw stones at them. a 1869 Ld. Strangford Lett. & Papers 215 (D.) This was as if the great geologists..had invited two rival theorists to settle the question..by picking up the stones and appealing to the test of a cockshy. 1883 J. Greenwood Odd People in Odd Places i. 6 One of the latter [i.e. donkey carts] being laden with cockshy sticks and cocoa-nuts. |
3. The missile thrown. rare—1.
| 1837–40 Haliburton Clockm. (1862) 189 The boy..threw his cock-shy at him with unerring aim, and killed him. |
4. The object at which the ‘shy’ is made. Hence transf. A thing to throw at; an object of attack.
| 1836 E. Howard R. Reefer xxvi, What a fine cock-shy he would make! 1888 Times 1 Oct. 4/1 It is never agreeable to either an individual or a body of troops to be made a sort of cockshy for an enemy. |
5. The establishment of a strolling proprietor, where sticks may be thrown at coco-nuts or the like, for payment.
| 1879 Daily News 7 Apr. 3/1 The tow-path is lined with people many deep, where the proprietors of ‘cockshies’,..and rifle galleries are driving a lucrative trade. |
Hence cock-shying, cock-throwing, playing at cockshy.
| 1870 G. W. Dasent Annals of an Eventful Life I. 194 Flogging in the army, and bull-baiting, and cock-shying. |