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ˈcock-fighting
The fighting of cocks; the sport of making cocks fight each other; formerly much practised, but made illegal by Act 12 & 13 Vict. c. 92.
c1450How Goode Wyfe (Ashm. MS.) 74 Ne go þou not to no wrastlynge, Ne ȝit to no coke fyghtynge [Lamb. MS. schotynge at cok]. 1518Stat. St. Paul's School in Knight Life Colet 362 (Brand), I will they use no Cock-fightinge nor ridinge about of Victorye. 1583Stubbes Anat. Abus. (1879) 180 note (title), Cockfightyng in Ailgna. 1684Lond. Gaz. No. 1930/4 At the Royal Cock-Pit at Windsor the 27th Instant begins a great Match of Cock-fighting between two Persons of Quality, which will continue the whole week. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. III. 88 Cock-Fighting with us is declining every day. 1801Strutt Sports & Past. iii. vii. (1876) 376 In the reign of Edward III, cock-fighting became a fashionable amusement. 1848Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 255 His personal tastes were low and frivolous..the time..was spent in racing, cardplaying, and cockfighting.
attrib.1791–9Statist. Acc. Scotl. VI. 614 In 1783, there were many public Cock-fighting Matches, or Mains.
b. to beat cock-fighting: a vulgar colloquialism (and as such used in fiction) for ‘to surpass everything else’ (as this sport in the opinion of its votaries surpassed every other).
[1659Gauden Tears Ch. 228 Ministers scufflings and contests with one another, is beyond any Cock-fighting or Bear-baiting.] 1821Blackw. Mag. IX. 133 Always excepting Mrs. McWhirter, for she beats cock-fighting. 1844Dickens Mart. Chuz. vii. (D.) 1853Lytton My Novel III. xi. (D.), The Squire faltered out, ‘Well, this beats cock-fighting! the man's as mad as a March hare’. |