Chapter Cock-pit to Cockney of C by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

should not hurt the most feeble of God's creatures.    Figuratively, it means an insidious, treacherous person bent on mischief.

“They will kill one another by the look, like cockatrices.”- Shakespeare: Twelfth Night, iii. 4.

Cocked Hat (A). A hat with the brim turned, like that of a bishop, dean, etc. It is also applied to the chapeau bras, and the military full-dress hat, pointed before and behind, and rising to a point at the crown, the chapeaù à cornu. “Cock” in this phrase means to turn; cocked, turned up.
   Knocked into a cocked hat. In the game of nine-pins, three pins were set up in the form of a triangle, and when all the pins except these three were knocked down, the set was technically said to be “knocked into a cocked hat.” Hence, utterly out of all shape or plumb. A somewhat similar phrase is “Knocked into the middle of next week.”

Cocked-hat Club (The). A club of the Society of Antiquaries. A cocked hat was always placed before the president when the club met.
   There was another club so called in which the members, during club sittings, wore cocked hats.

Cocker According to Cocker. All right, according to Cocker. According to established rules, according to what is correct. Edward Cocker (1631-1677) published an arithmetic which ran through sixty editions. The phrase, “According to Cocker,” was popularised by Murphy in his farce called The Apprentice.

Cockie or Cocky. Bumptious, overbearing, conceited, and dogmatical; like a little bantam cock.

Cockle Hat A pilgrim's hat. Warburton says, as the chief places of devotion were beyond sea, or on the coasts, pilgrims used to put cockle-shells upon their hats, to indicate that they were pilgrims. Cockles are symbols of St. James, patron saint of Spain. Cockle-scallop, as in heraldry.

“And how shall I your true love know
From many another one?
Oh, by his cockle hat and staff,
And by his sandal shoon.”
Beaumont and Fletcher: The Friar of Orders Grey.

Cockle Shells Favourite tokens worn by pilgrims in their hats. The polished side of the shell was scratched with some rude drawing of the “blessed Virgin,” the Crucifixion, or some other subject connected with the pilgrimage. Being blessed by the priest, they were considered amulets against spiritual foes, and might be used as drinking vessels.

Cockles To cry cockles. To be hanged; from the gurgling noise made in strangulation.

Cockles of the Heart “To warm the cockles of one's heart, ” said of good wine. (Latin, cochleae cordis, the ventricles of the heart.)

“Fibræ quidem rectis hisce exterioribus in dextro ventriculo proxime subjectæ oblique dextrorsum ascendentes in basim cordis terminantur, et spirali suo ambitu helicem sive cochleam satis apte referunt.”- Lower: Tractatus de Corde, p. 25. (1669.)

Cockledemoy (A ). An amusing rogue, a sort of Tyll Eulenspiegel. A character in Marston's comedy of The Dutch Courtesan. He cheats Mrs. Mulligrub, a vintner's wife, of a goblet and salmon.

Cockney One born within sound of Bow-bells, London; one possessing London peculiarities of speech, etc.; one wholly ignorant of country sports, country life, farm animals, plants, and so on.
   Camden says the Thames was once called “the Cockney.”
   The word has been spelt Cockeney, Cockaneys, Cocknell, etc. “Cocknell” would be a little cock. “Puer in deliciis matris nutritus, ” Anglice, a kokenay, a pampered child. “Niais” means a nestling, as faucon niais, and if this is the last syllable of “Cockney,” it confirms the idea that the word means an enfant gâté.
   Wedgwood suggests cocker (to fondle), and says a cockerney or cockney is one pampered by city indulgence, in contradistinction to rustics hardened by outdoor work. (Dutch, kokkeler, to pamper; French, coqueliner, to dangle.)
   Chambers in his Journal derives the word from a French poem of the thirteenth century, called The Land of Cocagne, where the houses were made of barley-sugar and cakes, the streets paved with pastry, and the shops supplied goods without