Cockshy

noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A game in which trinkets are set upon sticks, to be thrown at by the players.
  2. 2
    An object at which stones are flung; (by extension) a person who is abused or vilified.

    "He had seen Tom Ricketts, of the fourth form, who used to wear a jacket and trousers so ludicrously tight, that the elder boys could not forbear using him in the quality of a butt or ‘cockshy’ […]"

Verb
  1. 1
    To pelt; to throw things at. ambitransitive

Synonyms

All synonyms
pelt

Example

More examples

"He had seen Tom Ricketts, of the fourth form, who used to wear a jacket and trousers so ludicrously tight, that the elder boys could not forbear using him in the quality of a butt or ‘cockshy’ […]"

Etymology

From cock + shy; so called from an ancient popular sport which consisted in shying or throwing cudgels at live cocks.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.