Cock-up

Quick meaning: Cock-up is a noun meaning (Commonwealth, mildly vulgar slang) A mistake.

Meaning

(Commonwealth, mildly vulgar slang) A mistake.

More Meanings

1. (obsolete, Scotland) A roll or twist of hair worn at the nape of the neck; a bun.
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.

Example Sentences

And I'm sorry for all the cock-ups, my cabinet are absolute crap. We'll have to do better next year.

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

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.

If the zodiac was already developed in 2000 BC, it must have been kept as a cult secret or in some non-Babylonian country; this would be a 1500-year conspiracy theory. More likely is the individual cockup theory, viz. the naivety of Eudoxus himself.

Word Forms

• cock-ups

Synonyms for cock-up

Depending on context, synonyms include balls-up, foul-up, fuck-up, screw-up, bun, chignon.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include goof-up, balls-up, stuff-up, screwup, screw-up, fuck-up.

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