nestle-cock
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: nestlecock
Alternative forms
- nescock, nestcock, nestlecock
Etymology
Noun
nestle-cock (plural nestle-cocks)
- (UK, dialectal) The last-hatched chick of a brood, the weakling of a brood.
- (UK, dialectal, by extension) A mama's boy, a delicate child; a spoiled brat.
- c. 1621, Thomas Middleton, John Webster, Anything for a Quiet Life, act 4, scene 1:
- Indeed, my mother was wont to call me your Nestle-cock, and I love you as well as she did.
- 1662, Thomas Fuller, “Worthies of London”, in The History of the Worthies of England, volume 2, London: Thomas Tegg, published 1840, page 342:
- I meet with a double sense of this word Cockney: some taking it for, 1. One coaks'd or cocker'd (made a wanton or nestlecock of, delicately bred and brought up), so that when grown men or women they can endure no hardship, nor comport with pains-taking. 2. One utterly ignorant of husbandry or housewifery […]
- 1986, Patrick O'Brian, The Reverse of the Medal, page 161:
- You ignorant incompetent whey-faced nestlecock.
Synonyms
- (the weakling of a brood): nestlebub, runt
- (a delicate person): milksop, sissy, softy, wuss; see also Thesaurus:milksop
- (a spoiled child): brat, cockney, little emperor, mama's boy
References
- Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd ed. "nestle-cock, n.". Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2003.
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