ˈcock-fighting
The fighting of cocks; the sport of making cocks fight each other; formerly much practised, but made illegal by Act 12 & 13 Vict. c. 92.
| c 1450 How Goode Wyfe (Ashm. MS.) 74 Ne go þou not to no wrastlynge, Ne ȝit to no coke fyghtynge [Lamb. MS. schotynge at cok]. 1518 Stat. St. Paul's School in Knight Life Colet 362 (Brand), I will they use no Cock-fightinge nor ridinge about of Victorye. 1583 Stubbes Anat. Abus. (1879) 180 note (title), Cockfightyng in Ailgna. 1684 Lond. Gaz. No. 1930/4 At the Royal Cock-Pit at Windsor the 27th Instant begins a great Match of Cock-fighting between two Persons of Quality, which will continue the whole week. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. III. 88 Cock-Fighting with us is declining every day. 1801 Strutt Sports & Past. iii. vii. (1876) 376 In the reign of Edward III, cock-fighting became a fashionable amusement. 1848 Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 255 His personal tastes were low and frivolous..the time..was spent in racing, cardplaying, and cockfighting. |
| attrib. 1791–9 Statist. Acc. Scotl. VI. 614 In 1783, there were many public Cock-fighting Matches, or Mains. |
b. to beat cock-fighting: a vulgar colloquialism (and as such used in fiction) for ‘to surpass everything else’ (as this sport in the opinion of its votaries surpassed every other).
| [1659 Gauden Tears Ch. 228 Ministers scufflings and contests with one another, is beyond any Cock-fighting or Bear-baiting.] 1821 Blackw. Mag. IX. 133 Always excepting Mrs. M{supc}Whirter, for she beats cock-fighting. 1844 Dickens Mart. Chuz. vii. (D.) 1853 Lytton My Novel III. xi. (D.), The Squire faltered out, ‘Well, this beats cock-fighting! the man's as mad as a March hare’. |