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# cocking

«cocking» in Mova's early modern english dictionary: **lifting, raising, looking sideways** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### kind

archaic word

### modern equivalent

lifting, raising, looking sideways

### part of speech

verb, present participle of cock

### meaning for a pupil

Lifting or holding something up, such as a tail, or turning one eye to look sideways at someone. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/emode/C/cocking/#m1)

### how it differs from today

Today "cock" mostly means a male bird or the action of a gun. In these sentences it means lifting up a tail or turning the head, and the sentences use that old sense.

### examples

- But do what they might, cats or poison, terrier or traps, there seemed to be more rats than ever, and every day a fresh rat was cocking his tail or pricking his whiskers. (More English Fairy Tales) [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/emode/C/cocking/#x1)
- On his return he strutted up to his mother with the peculiar little hop and kick which was his way of walking, and cocking his one eye at her in a very bold way he said: (The Green Fairy Book) [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/emode/C/cocking/#x2)

### tests

rate: word (≥3 uses, never in EWT or ≥10× EWT, Wiktionary: first sense archaic); corpora 3 (Torah 0, tales 3, Sefer Yetzirah 0); EWT 0; ratio 0.3 (Torah alone 0.0); Wiktionary archaic (first sense)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «cocking» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/emode/C/cocking/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.