cockpitn.
/ˈkɒkpɪt/, U.S. /ˈkɑkˌpɪt/ 1. A pit or (temporary or permanent) arena in which cockfights are held.Now chiefly historical: see note at cockfighting n.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > fighting or baiting animals > fighting between animals > [noun] > cock-fighting > cock-pit
cockpit1556
shrape1575
sod1912
gayelle1968
1556 M. Huggarde Displaying of Protestantes f. 73v They stalled it aboute in maner of a Cocke pyt, where al the people might see them, and their communion.
1598 J. Stow Suruay of London 374 On the right hand bee diuers fayre Tennis courtes, bowling Allies, and a Cocke pit, all built by king Henry the eight.
a1644 F. Quarles Judgem. & Mercy (1646) 19 At a Cockpit [to] leave our doubtfull fortunes to the mercy of unmercifull contention.
1719 D. Defoe Life Robinson Crusoe 195 A Circle dug in the Earth, like a Cockpit.
1783 Weekly Entertainer 3 Nov. 412 Their cock-pit..is enclosed with a railing..; none but the handlers and heelers being admitted within side.
1856 R. W. Emerson Eng. Traits iv. 74 The animal ferocity of the quays and cockpits.
1927 Travel Nov. 10/1 There is scarcely a hamlet without a cock-pit, and a large supply of feathered gladiators is in constant demand for the weekly combats.
2017 Irish Examiner (Nexis) 15 Dec. This was a sport that transcended class and was pursued in both dedicated cockpits and in informal locations.
2. figurative. A scene of (esp. military) conflict; a battlefield, a war zone. the cockpit of Europe: a region of Europe which is the scene of (esp. repeated) conflict; in recent use frequently applied to Belgium.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > dissent > contention or strife > [noun] > place where contest is fought out
fieldeOE
listc1386
cockpita1568
amphitheatre1710
arena1814
scrambling-place1878
scrambling-ground1884
a1568 R. Ascham Scholemaster (1570) ii. f. 51 I haue bene a looker on in the Cokpit of learning thies many yeares.
1676 A. Marvell Mr. Smirke sig. I It seemed like an Ecclesiastical Cock-pit, and a man might have laid wagers either way.
1735 Grand Accuser Greatest of All Criminals 60 An Attempt to bring in the Pretender, would probably have been made a common Cause, and Great Britain would have been the Cockpit of Europe.
1759 Monitor No. 186. 1126 It cannot be long before we may expect to be grounded like corn between two millstones,..or once more become the cockpit of war for the powers.
1836 J. Murray Hand-bk. for Travellers on Continent 149/1 The part of Belgium through which our route lies, has been called the ‘Cock-pit’ of Europe.
1919 Balkan Rev. Dec. 306 The Great War has cleared away many of the conflicting interests which for so long dominated and made the Balkans the cockpit of Europe.
2001 Oxf. Compan. Politics of World (ed. 2) 407/1 ‘Failed states’ that become cockpits for battling warlords.
3. † a. A theatre. Also: the floor or pit (pit n.1 10a) of a theatre auditorium. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > the theatre or the stage > a theatre > [noun]
houseOE
playhouseOE
playing-placea1375
showplace1560
show hall1562
theatre?1577
theatre-house1578
cockpita1616
stage-house1638
show house1674
saloon1747
theatrum1786
spellkenc1800
hippodrome1811
spell1819
show-box1822
a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry V (1623) Prol. 11 Can this Cock-Pit hold The vastie fields of France? Or may we cramme Within this Woodden O, the very Caskes That did affright the Ayre at Agincourt? View more context for this quotation
a1635 L. Digges in W. Shakespeare Poems (1640) sig. *4 Let but Beatrice And Benedicke be seene, loe in a trice The Cockpit Galleries, Boxes, all are full.
b. With the. Usually with capital initial. The buildings opposite Whitehall, London which housed government offices including the Treasury and the Privy Council after Whitehall's destruction by fire in 1698. Hence allusively: the Treasury, or the Privy Council. Now historical.The buildings were constructed on or near the former site of a theatre called The Cockpit, which itself was erected on the site of an arena for cockfighting which was built for Henry VIII (cf. quot. 1598 at sense 1) and also used to stage theatrical performances.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > the theatre or the stage > a theatre > auditorium > [noun] > pit or ground floor
yard1609
ground1631
pit1649
ground-stand1659
cockpit1698
parterre1711
parquet1773
1698 N. Luttrell Diary in Brief Hist. Relation State Affairs (1857) IV. 329 The council chamber, treasury, and duke Shrewsbury's offices, are to be at the Cockpitt, till Whitehal be rebuilt.
1773 E. Burke Let. 30 Oct. in Corr. (1960) II. 477 For the sake of gratifying the schemes of a transitory administration of the cockpit or the castle.
1830 C. C. F. Greville Mem. 22 Nov. (1874) II. xii. 70 He [sc. Brougham] threatened to sit often at the Cockpit, in order to check Leach, who, though a good judge in his own Court, was good for nothing in a Court of Appeal.
2002 R. M. Ketchum Divided Loyalties xviii. 254 Alexander Wedderburn, the solicitor general.., confronted Franklin at a hearing in the Cockpit.
4. coarse slang. The vagina.In early use often with punning allusion to sense 1; later punning on sense 6d.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > sex organs > female sex organs > [noun] > vagina
quaintc1330
quivera1382
tailc1390
mousetrapc1500
cunnigar1550
placket1595
buttonhole1600
bumble broth1602
touch-hole1602
case1606
keyhole1607
vagina1612
nicka1625
nunquam satis1633
lock1640
twat1656
cockpit1658
Whitechapel portion?1695
tuzzy-muzzy1710
niche1749
can1772
bumbo1774
fuckhole1893
jelly roll1895
mole-catcher1896
manhole1916
vag1967
stank1980
pum-pum1983
punani1987
1658 J. Eliot Poems 58 I trust her daughter will have so much wit, Early to get a cock for her cock-pit.
1749 J. Cleland Mem. Woman of Pleasure II. 187 The rose-lipt overture presenting the cock-pit so fair, that it was not in nature even for a natural to miss it.
1870 A. C. Swinburne Let. 1 Mar. (1959) II. 108 To wind up with, a general cockfight—her Grace..permitting the free use of her cock-pit.
c1941 in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 47 There was a young harlot named Schwartz Whose cock-pit was studded with warts.
1979 P. Farmer Riverworld & Other Stories 129 Now, all caution abandoned, he poured a long slow stream of fire into her cockpit.
2014 @yesimslick 13 Apr. in twitter.com (O.E.D. Archive) She fly my cock inside her cockpit woop!
5. In Jamaica: a rocky hollow or sinkhole enclosed by steep-sided forested hills. Cf. cockpit country n., cockpit karst n. at Compounds 2.Recorded earliest in place names. Historically, such hollows were used as hiding places by escaped slaves.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > land > landscape > low land > hole or pit > [noun] > pot-hole or swallow-hole
water sink1553
swallow1610
swallow-hole1660
estuary1665
swallet1668
cockpit1683
sinkhole1772
sink1791
pot1797
water-swallow1811
shake-hole1823
pothole1826
fleet-hole1839
spout hole1849
katavothron1869
ponor1890
sump1951
1683 Laws of Jamaica (map) Cockpit Savaña.
1740 C. Leslie New Hist. Jamaica (map) Pedro's Cockpits.
1796 Daily Advertiser 2 Jan. Our last Advices from that Quarter state, that rapid Approaches are making towards the Maroons Cockpits.
1803 R. C. Dallas Hist. Maroons I. ii. 39 The grand object of a Maroon chief in war was to take a station in some glen, or, as it is called in the West Indies, Cockpit, enclosed by rocks and mountains nearly perpendicular, and to which the only practicable entrance is by a very narrow defile.
1907 Scotsman 19 Jan. 8/3 So early as Spanish times many had escaped from the plantations, and sought refuge in the inaccessible upland valleys and ‘cockpits’ of the interior.
1989 O. Senior Arrival of Snake-woman 17 The rivers, every spring dried up and people had to go into the cockpits and cut down water wiss to get something to drink, they even raided wild pine for water.
6.
a. Nautical. The after part of the orlop deck on a man-of-war, where the quarters for junior officers including the ship's surgeon were located, and the wounded were treated during warfare. Now historical.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > parts of vessels > room, locker, or quarters > [noun] > part of vessel where sailors live > in naval vessel
gun-room1626
cockpit1691
gunner-rooma1698
wardroom1759
wardroom mess1887
pit1890
1691 H. Maydman Naval Speculations vii. 224 We are choaked all in the Cock-pit, the steem of the Hold, for want of passage up the Steeridge way, kills us.
1813 R. Southey Life Nelson II. 258 The cockpit was crowded with wounded and dying men; over whose bodies he was with some difficulty conveyed.
1956 P. O'Brian Golden Ocean (1996) xiv. 269 The other officers were in their stations about the ship: the surgeon in the cockpit ready.
2006 Eng. Hist. Rev. 121 488 Such work still had to be done at speed in the confined, ill-lit and smokey cockpit of a rolling ship.
b. A sunken area in the deck (usually towards the stern) of a small vessel, esp. a yacht, where the helm is located. Also: a small compartment in which a paddler of a kayak, or similar covered boat, sits.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > parts of vessels > other parts of body of vessel > [noun] > opening to accommodate rower or paddler
cockpit1754
manhole1853
1754 Public Advertiser 28 Nov. A Boat, with a Deck Cockpit and Long Hatchway,..suitable for a Fisherman or a Luggage Boat.
1883 Harper's Mag. Aug. 375/1 Sitting in the cockpit of my canoe.
1965 E. A. Pearson Lure of Sailing i. 6 Buy a one-design boat of the day-sailer type with a comfortable cockpit to sit in, not one in which you have to hang out over the rail..to keep it right side up.
2004 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 18 July iii. 6/1 Kayaks have small cockpits, bucket seats, double-blade paddles and pointed hulls.
c. The driver's compartment in a racing car. Hence: the driver's area, including seat, dashboard, steering wheel, etc., in any car, esp. a sports car.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > means of travel > a conveyance > vehicle > powered vehicle > parts and equipment of motor vehicles > [noun] > seating compartment in racing car
cockpit1904
1904 Automobile 15 Oct. 457/3 It was a case of too much oil in the cylinders, which caused such a smoke that breathing in the car cockpit was difficult.
1935 G. E. T. Eyston & B. Lyndon Motor Racing iv. 40 Smoke poured from Nuvolari's cockpit, and he climbed from his seat.
1989 Car & Driver Sept. 108/1 You're in the cockpit of a ragtop Testarossa with a tanned, blond hardbody at your side.
2017 Grimsby (Ont.) Lincoln News (Nexis) 11 Dec. (Final ed.) (Sports section) 1 His team is currently hard at work to adjust the cockpit of his car and make improvements.
d. A compartment in an aircraft in which the pilot and often also other crew members sit and from which the aircraft is controlled. Also: a similar compartment in a spacecraft.In early use occasionally also referring to a passenger compartment: cf. quot. 19091.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > air or space travel > a means of conveyance through the air > aeroplane > parts of aircraft > [noun] > fuselage > cockpit or flight deck
cockpit1909
office1917
flight deck1924
pulpit1933
1909 N.Y. Times 14 Feb. iv. 2/3 The cockpit for the passengers [on the airship] will be eight feet long.
1909 Flight 30 Oct. 682/1 An open cockpit is provided for the accommodation of the pilot's seat.
1917 Blackwood's Mag. Mar. 383/1 Several bullets ventilated the fuselage quite close to my cockpit.
1945 Aeroplane 16 Nov. 569/1 The single-seat cockpit is positioned well forward and the pilot ejection seat is of the explosive cartridge type.
1995 Pop. Sci. July 100/2 The space shuttle will be manned by astronauts in the cockpit and function like a commercial liner in the cabin.
2015 M. Vanhoenacker Skyfaring 23 I am in the cockpit of a 747 over the wintry-white Rockies, which spread out below me to the horizon.
e. The handlebars, manual controls, and instrument panel (and sometimes also windscreen) of a motorcycle. Hence also: the handlebars, stem, and manual controls of a mountain bike or racing bike.
ΚΠ
1993 Super Bike Jan. 7/2 The third observation I made..was that the bike gave very good wind protection as long as you keep your head down in the cockpit.
2014 Cycle Sport Apr. 129/2 The finishing kit includes a colour-coordinated Fizik Ardea saddle, and the cockpit is neatly branded Boardman own-brand alloy.
7. figurative. The place from which something is directed, managed, or regulated; a centre of control or power.Often as part of an extended metaphor.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > control > [noun] > direction > place from which operation is directed
brain1806
brain-box1876
control room1885
control centre1896
cockpit1936
control1958
1936 Amer. Mag. Art Feb. 133/1 This is a book by the man who sat in the cockpit of the modern architectural movement during its fifteen most fruitful years.
1961 Washington Post 8 May a 16/2 Mr. Feis was near the cockpit of power, holding a series of jobs as a consultant to various Government agencies.
1991 T. Pratchett Reaper Man (1994) 31 What was being thought by Windle Poons, in the humming, flashing cockpit of his brain, was: well, it's true. There is life after death.
2014 Sunday Times (Nexis) 9 Nov. 44 Grace [Mugabe] is now in the cockpit, she is running the government.
Compounds
C1. General use as a modifier.
a. With reference to cockfighting arenas (see sense 1). Also in extended use, indicating aggression or conflict (cf. sense 2). Now chiefly historical.
ΚΠ
?1576 A. Hall Let. touchyng Priuate Quarell sig. b.iij My Lord Souche..in some hast went into the cockpitte yarde too him.
1757 E. Lancer Particular Remarks Affair of Hanoverian Soldier 26 I would lay a Cockpit Wager, that a Corps perhaps less the 15 Thousand French Veterans, would easily rout 70 or 80 Thousand of our Militia.
1884 Pall Mall Gaz. 3 Sept. 2/1 The cock-pit animus, apt to spring up between equal bodies in different camps.
1972 R. Willis Portrait of York v. 133 As the last legal main was fought 200 years ago and the rattle of fair silver spurs is now the faintest of echoes, cockpit sites are not easy to find in the twentieth century.
b. With reference to the cockpit of a boat, aircraft, racing car, etc. (see sense 6).
ΚΠ
1840 U.S. Mil. Mag. Aug. 12/2 He cut the schoolmaster's hammock lashings and spilled him in a most undignified manner upon the cockpit floor.
1942 R. Hillary Last Enemy 1 My plane had been fitted out with a new cockpit hood.
1968 Autocar 14 Mar. 41/2 We did a quick cockpit check, lights, horns, entered up the log book and pulled out of the station yard.
2014 New Straits Times (Malaysia) (Nexis) 16 Mar. 8 Can an airliner's reinforced and bullet-resistant, locked cockpit door be breached by skyjackers?
C2.
cockpit coaming n. (also cockpit coamings) (a) the raised border around the cockpit of a boat; cf. sense 6b, coaming n. a; (b) (originally, in an open-cockpit aircraft) the padded-leather border around the cockpit; (now usually) a shelf above the instrument panel in the cockpit of an aircraft that acts as an anti-glare device and typically houses certain other instruments.
ΚΠ
1869 All Year Round 31 July 198/1 Nothing gives me so much pleasure as tearing through it, with the wind blowing half a gale, and the boat's tide buried to the cockpit coaming.
1889 R. L. Stevenson Let. Feb. (1911) III. 97 As I came on deck, I found the green sea over the cockpit coamings and running down the companion like a brook to meet me.
1935 Telegraph (Brisbane) 27 June 6/5 A swivelling gun in the rear cockpit, which has the cockpit coaming flared out to protect the gunner from the air stream.
1995 Aircraft Engin. & Aerospace Technol. July 3/1 A PVD indicator is mounted in the cockpit coaming in front of each pilot.
2012 D. Henderson Sea Kayaking 31/2 Once you have your kayak floating parallel to the shore, place the paddle shaft across the boat, on the deck, just aft of the cockpit coaming.
cockpit country n. (in Jamaica; also with capital initials) an area mainly in the north-west of the island containing many rocky hollows and sinkholes (see sense 5); (Geomorphology) a similar area in any part of the world.
ΚΠ
1866 J. G. Sawkins in J. G. Sawkins et al. Rep. Geol. Jamaica (1869) 216 It is here the Cockpit country commences;..the difficulties presented by the uneven surface, the loose fragmentary limestone, the steepness of the declivities and acclivities, the absence of soil or water render this portion of the parish undeserving of attention either for agricultural or pastoral purposes.
1966 J. C. Pugh in G. H. Dury Ess. Geomorphol. 135 Some workers prefer to regard cockpit country and tower karst as typical of karst in general, holding that in the past too much emphasis has been placed on solution and on associated collapse of passages, and too little on surface features of solution which are not restricted to tropical regions.
2008 Caribbean Rev. Bks. Nov. 31/2 The maroons had to hunt whether they liked it or not, and in the rough terrain of the Cockpit Country at that.
cockpit karst n. Geomorphology a form of karst landscape exemplified by the cockpits (sense 5) of Jamaica, typically consisting of rocky hollows and sinkholes lying between steep-sided conical limestone hills.
ΚΠ
1954 Erdkunde 8 122/1 This is the ‘cockpit’-karst (karst en écumoire) of Jamaica, Porto-rico, Java and New Guinea.
1980 Geography 65 109 Their basins, called cockpits in Jamaica, are surrounded by steep-sided hills (cones) which are dissected by gullies channelling run-off into adjacent cockpits. An assemblage of such depressions and adjacent hills is known as cockpit karst.
2000 A. J. Whitten et al. Ecol. Sumatra (new ed.) viii. 271 Cockpit karst such as at Lho'Nga, North Aceh, and in the hills near Payakumbuh, has a regular series of conical or hemispherical hills and hollows with moderately steep sides (30–40°).
cockpit sole n. the floor of a cockpit of a boat; cf. sense 6b.
ΚΠ
1941 Wood Jan. 26/2 The cockpit sole is of teak, and the transom, locker tops, and engine casing of mahogany.
1960 Skipper Dec. 5/1 The position of the cockpit has the dual advantage of providing a pleasantly high cockpit sole, as well as leaving the choice stern position free for the owner's stateroom.
2002 T. Pinney Ready for Sea xiv. 185 The cockpit sole on some boats is, or can be made, removable by unbolting. Then the engine can be more easily removed.
cockpit voice recorder n. a device in an aircraft that records sounds audible in the cockpit, esp. the conversation of the flight crew, as an aid to investigating an accident or other incident.The recorder is contained in a ‘black box’ (black box n. 3).
ΚΠ
1962 N.Y. Times 6 Apr. 70/5 The Federal Aviation Agency..said it was about to begin extensive testing of a new type of cockpit voice recorder.
1994 Denver Post 15 Dec. a17/1 A preliminary review of the airplane's cockpit voice recorder showed the pilots discussed an engine flameout, or stall.
2003 UFO Mag. Sept. 25/3 Sources claim the last thing heard on the cockpit voice recorder is the sound of wind—suggesting the plane had been holed.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2019; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
<
n.1556- expanded
- expanded metal
- expanded steel
- expandedness
- expander
- expanders
- expanding
- expanding bullet
- expanding universe
- expands
- expanse
- expanse years
- expansed
- expanses
- expansibilities
- expansibility
- expansible
- ethnohistorian
- ethnohistorians
- ethnohistoric
- ethnohistorical
- ethnohistories
- ethnohistory
- ethnolinguist
- ethnolinguistic