cock-up

See also: cockup and cock up

English

Etymology

Deverbal from cock up.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

cock-up (plural cock-ups)

1. (Commonwealth, mildly vulgar slang) A mistake.

   Synonyms: screw-up, (vulgar) fuck-up; see also Thesaurus:error

   • 2023 November 15, Christian Wolmar, “Ministers should carry the can for ticket office fiasco”, in RAIL, number 996, page 46:

     In over a quarter of a century of writing this column, there has been no end of scandals, mishaps, errors and general cock-ups resulting from ministerial incompetence.

2. (obsolete, UK, Ireland, printers' slang) A superior letter. A lower-case letter placed above the baseline and made smaller than ordinary script; traditionally used in abbreviations.
   • 1824, John Johnson, Typographia, volume 2, page 33:

     The first word of every section or chapter is generally put in small capitals, after a small neat cock-up letter.

3. (obsolete, Scotland) A roll or twist of hair worn at the nape of the neck; a bun.
   • 1888, Charles Mackay, A Dictionary of Lowland Scotch‎^[1], page 30:

     Cockernonie, a gathering up of the hair of women, after a fashion similar to that of the modern "chignon," and sometimes called a "cock-up." Mr. Kirkton, of Edinburgh, preaching against "cock-ups"—of which chignons were the representatives a quarter of a century ago—said: "I have been all this year preaching against the vanity of women, yet I see my own daughter in the kirk even now with as high a 'cock-up' as any one of you all."

Synonyms

• (mistake): balls-up (mildly taboo slang), foul-up, fuck-up (taboo slang), screw-up (slang)
• (hairstyle): bun, chignon

See also

• cock up
• cocked-up

References

• (superior letter): John S[tephen] Farmer; W[illiam] E[rnest] Henley, compilers (1891) “cock-up”, in Slang and Its Analogues Past and Present. […], volume II, [London: […] Harrison and Sons] […], →OCLC, page 145.