cocksy, coxy, a.
(ˈkɒksɪ)
[app. f. cock n.1: cf. tricksy and cocky.]
Self-important, saucy, impudent, ‘bumptious’, cocky. (Mostly a schoolboy's word.) Hence ˈcoxiness.
| 1728 Ramsay Gen. Mistake 199 Yon little coxy wight that makes sic wark With tongue and gait. 1825 Jamieson Suppl., Cocksie, affecting airs of importance (Lanarks.); synon. with Cocky. 1846 Landor Imag. Conv. II. 229 More blustering and cocksy. 1857 S. Osborn Quedah xxiv. 345 A stiff and cocksy-looking handkerchief fluttered around his..erect hair. 1857 Hughes Tom Brown i. viii, He's the coxiest young blackguard in the house. 1883 F. Anstey Vice Versa iv. 71. 1927 F. B. Young Portrait of Clare 479 They wouldn't believe me; they said I was coxy about it. |
| 1859 Payn Foster Brothers viii. 129 ‘Cheek’ and ‘coxiness’. 1881 Pall Mall G. 11 Apr. 11/1 White planters grumble..about his [the negro's] laziness, his thieving propensities, and his illimitable coxiness. |