cockeyedadj.adv.
/ˌkɒkˈʌɪd/, U.S. /ˈkɑkˌaɪd/ colloquial.
A. adj.
1. Originally and chiefly North American. (Very) drunk; intoxicated. Cf. sense B.Probably implying earlier currency of sense A. 2a, of which this appears to be a figurative use.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > drink > thirst > excess in drinking > [adjective] > drunk
fordrunkenc897
drunkena1050
cup-shottenc1330
drunka1400
inebriate1497
overseenc1500
liquor1509
fou1535
nase?1536
full1554
intoxicate1554
tippled1564
intoxicated1576
pepst1577
overflown1579
whip-cat1582
pottical1586
cup-shota1593
fox-drunk1592
lion-drunk1592
nappy1592
sack-sopped1593
in drink1598
disguiseda1600
drink-drowned1600
daggeda1605
pot-shotten1604
tap-shackled1604
high1607
bumpsy1611
foxed1611
in one's cups1611
liquored1611
love-pot1611
pot-sick1611
whift1611
owl-eyed1613
fapa1616
hota1616
inebriated1615
reeling ripea1616
in one's (or the) pots1618
scratched1622
high-flown?1624
pot-shot1627
temulentive1628
ebrious1629
temulent1629
jug-bitten1630
pot-shaken1630
toxed1635
bene-bowsiea1637
swilled1637
paid1638
soaken1651
temulentious1652
flagonal1653
fuddled1656
cut1673
nazzy1673
concerned1678
whittled1694
suckey1699
well-oiled1701
tippeda1708
tow-row1709
wet1709
swash1711
strut1718
cocked1737
cockeyed1737
jagged1737
moon-eyed1737
rocky1737
soaked1737
soft1737
stewed1737
stiff1737
muckibus1756
groggy1770
muzzeda1788
muzzya1795
slewed1801
lumpy1810
lushy1811
pissed1812
blue1813
lush1819
malty1819
sprung1821
three sheets in the wind1821
obfuscated1822
moppy1823
ripe1823
mixed1825
queer1826
rosined1828
shot in the neck1830
tight1830
rummy1834
inebrious1837
mizzled1840
obflisticated1840
grogged1842
pickled1842
swizzled1843
hit under the wing1844
obfusticatedc1844
ebriate1847
pixilated1848
boozed1850
ploughed1853
squiffy?1855
buffy1858
elephant trunk1859
scammered1859
gassed1863
fly-blown1864
rotten1864
shot1864
ebriose1871
shicker1872
parlatic1877
miraculous1879
under the influence1879
ginned1881
shickered1883
boiled1886
mosy1887
to be loaded for bear(s)1888
squiffeda1890
loaded1890
oversparred1890
sozzled1892
tanked1893
orey-eyed1895
up the (also a) pole1897
woozy1897
toxic1899
polluted1900
lit-up1902
on (also upon) one's ear1903
pie-eyed1903
pifflicated1905
piped1906
spiflicated1906
jingled1908
skimished1908
tin hat1909
canned1910
pipped1911
lit1912
peloothered1914
molo1916
shick1916
zigzag1916
blotto1917
oiled-up1918
stung1919
stunned1919
bottled1922
potted1922
rotto1922
puggled1923
puggle1925
fried1926
crocked1927
fluthered1927
lubricated1927
whiffled1927
liquefied1928
steamed1929
mirackc1930
overshot1931
swacked1932
looped1934
stocious1937
whistled1938
sauced1939
mashed1942
plonked1943
stone1945
juiced1946
buzzed1952
jazzed1955
schnockered1955
honkers1957
skunked1958
bombed1959
zonked1959
bevvied1960
mokus1960
snockered1961
plotzed1962
over the limit1966
the worse for wear1966
wasted1968
wired1970
zoned1971
blasted1972
Brahms and Liszt?1972
funked up1976
trousered1977
motherless1980
tired and emotional1981
ratted1982
rat-arsed1984
wazzed1990
mullered1993
twatted1993
bollocksed1994
lashed1996
1737 B. Franklin Drinkers Dict. in Pennsylvania Gaz. 6–13 Jan. 1/3 He's..Cock Ey'd.
1923 Atlanta (Georgia) Constit. 18 July 6/5 They talked of being ‘ginny’ and ‘cock-eyed’ and how they were laying for this cop and that.
1934 E. Linklater Magnus Merriman xvi. 178 You wouldn't have asked me to marry you if you hadn't been cock-eyed at the time.
1953 J. Thompson Savage Night xviii. 136 I took a bottle up to my room with me, and I got half cockeyed.
2017 S. Carolina Lawyers Weekly (Nexis) 5 Sept. But for now, to all of us who value drinking ourselves cockeyed more than getting our lives in order, raise your tall cans.
2.
a. Of a person or his or her appearance, expression, etc.: having or characterized by a permanent deviation in the direction of gaze of one or both eyes; cross-eyed, boss-eyed. Cf. cockeye n.1 1.In quot. 1751 perhaps as a more general term of abuse.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > disorders of eye > disordered vision > [adjective] > squinting or cross-eyed
wall-eyeda1400
thwartingc1430
gleed1482
pink-eyed1519
goggle1540
squint1579
squint-eyed1589
squinted1591
squinting1611
moon-eyed1623
squink-eyed1632
asquint1643
skew-eyed1658
cockeyed1751
yaw-sighted1751
swivel-eyed1758
cross-eyed1791
slew-eyed1807
skellied1821
squinny-eyeda1825
strabismic1855
boss-eyed1860
strabismical1866
hyperphoric1887
strabismal1891
heterophoric1894
squinty1922
squinty1925
1751 Midwife 2 180 Or you shall feel the Weight of my Resentment, ye old cock-ey'd Jezebel.
1761 Mem. Life Mod. Saint xii. 97 The cock-eyed family are all inspired.
1863 Tyneside Songs 19 Cock-eyed Tom that sells the pies.
1934 Sci. News Let. 13 Jan. 28/1 It is this lack of ability to fix both eyes on a given object that gives the young baby that occasional ‘cross-eyed’ or ‘cock-eyed’ look.
2012 Time Out N.Y. 12 Jan. 36/3 Tina Malhotra begins a diary addressed to Jean-Paul Sartre... As she dreamily ponders J.P.S.'s maxims and cockeyed visage, teenage traumas transpire.
b. With reference to the gaze of a person or (less commonly) an animal: directed to the side or from the corner of the eye; sidelong, oblique.In quot. 1896 perhaps specifically with reference to looking in two directions at once; cf. sense A. 2a.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > sight and vision > a look or glance > [adjective] > sideways
askanted1576
squintinga1593
askance1593
squint1611
leer1631
skaunt1791
squinnya1825
sideways-looking1832
cockeyed1852
skance1866
squinnying1973
1852 Househ. Words 14 Aug. 511/1 The shrewd starlings avoid the place with a sidelong, cock-eyed glance of aversion.
1869 F. W. Robinson For her Sake II. i. xxiv. 20 A cross ‘cock-eyed’ glance, that was not pleasant to encounter.
1896 Daily News 29 Feb. 5/3 It [sc. Bennett-street, St. James's, London] is a gorge that requires a good deal of cock-eyed watching by foot passengers.
1919 N. A. Fuessle Flail xvii. 213 Deshman turned to Dohmer with a cock-eyed look.
2007 San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News (Nexis) 4 July (Sports section) When Lewis finally found a seat, Bonds shot him a cockeyed look.
3. figurative.
a. Topsy-turvy; absurd, ridiculous; crazy, irrational. Cf. cockeye adj. 2.Sometimes with connotations of having a blinkered or skewed outlook. Cf. one-eyed adj. 3a.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > lack of understanding > foolishness, folly > absurdity, incongruity > [adjective]
impertinenta1425
royeta1522
absurd1531
preposterous1533
ridiculous1533
deaf?1541
monstrous?1549
fabulous1561
fanatical1598
fantastical1600
laughable1600
fantasticc1616
nonsense1621
arsy-versy1628
absonous1642
nonsensical1645
ridicule?1669
fancical1671
grotesque1747
rich1836
saugrenu1876
laughsome1884
cockeyed1894
hilarious1925
Rube Goldberg1928
whimsy-whamsy1931
Rube Goldbergian1933
cockamamie1941
fantasticated1960
fanciful-
1894 Daily Times (New Brunswick, New Jersey) 18 May Coxeyism is about the worst case of cock-eyed statesmanship that has yet struck the country.
1933 Punch 31 May 597 There doesn't seem to be anyone about in this cock-eyed town.
1945 A. Koestler Twilight Bar i. 30 When it's summer in the North, it's winter in the South. Completely cockeyed.
1960 M. Spark Ballad of Peckham Rye x. 201 He gathered together the scrap ends of his profligate experience..and turned them into a lot of cock-eyed books.
2009 Harvard Law Rev. 122 1293 I like to remember Ollie as the classical cockeyed optimist.
b. Askew, crooked; not level, aslant; awry. Cf. cockeye adj. 1.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > shape > misshapenness > [adjective] > crooked
wough862
crumba1100
wrongc1175
crooked?c1225
crochedc1300
forcrookedc1305
miscrookeda1398
crumpleda1400
kirkeda1425
camshoch1513
crooken1589
awry1728
thraward1814
ajee1816
ahoo1828
crinkly-crankly1850
unstraight1860
cockeye1891
cockeyed1899
crookedy1907
the world > space > relative position > inclination > [adjective] > askew
obliquate?a1425
cama1600
ajee1816
askew1831
skew-whiff1839
splay1873
catawampous1885
skewgee1890
cockeye1891
boss-eyed1898
skewy1898
cockeyed1899
squiffy1941
akimbo1943
1899 Shields Daily News 4 Mar. 4/3 If, as is hinted, some of our boulevards are so cock-eyed that they make people fall off their conveyances, then I think we had better put these right.
1907 Broad Way Oct. 145 Can't you put on these glasses better? You know you've got 'em all cockeyed.
1941 Amer. Boy Feb. 5/2 They knocked an oil lead cockeyed.
1967 G. Halls Cats of Benares ii. 23 A portrait of Sir Rabindranath Tagore, hanging cock-eyed on the wall, looked down on us with foggy sentimental eyes.
1991 Gay Times Apr. 64/1 The only radicalism was in the cockeyed camerawork and frenzied editing.
2002 A. Davies Frog King 204 Horst walks in, wearing a cockeyed party hat on his head and doing a Locomotiony dance.
B. adv.
Originally and chiefly North American. cockeyed drunk: = sense A. 1.
ΚΠ
1914 N.Y. Times 19 May 1/1 What in the — was the matter with that bunch. Were they all cock-eyed drunk?
1928 V. Delmar Bad Girl xxii. 263 He told me to get some whiskey and get cockeyed drunk and recover from the wait I had downstairs.
1986 J. Patterson Black Market iii. 35 He hoped to God he looked cockeyed drunk and absolutely helpless.
2015 J. P. Carinci Defying Death in Hagerstown v. 54 I pictured myself in the back of a police car, but this time cockeyed drunk.
Compounds
cockeyed Bob n. Australian (chiefly in Western Australia and Northern Territory) a cyclone or thunderstorm, esp. one which is sudden and violent, but short-lived; cf. cockeye Bob n. at cockeye n.1 and adj. Compounds.
ΚΠ
1885 West Australian (Perth) 13 Apr. Last month we had a strong squall (‘Cockeyet [sic] Bob’) which lasted a few minutes and sent verandah lounges, empty boxes, and light vehicles rolling about.
1930 E. R. B. Gribble Forty Years with Aborigines xvii. 173 We had our first experience of a Cock-eyed Bob, or storm of wind, thunder, lightning, and rain.
1952 T. A. G. Hungerford in Coast to Coast 1951–2 13 The pearlers who anchored in the bay sometimes to escape the cockeyed-bobs that sprang up so suddenly along those desolate, treacherous coasts.
2010 Comment News (Perth, Austral.) (Nexis) 30 Mar. 6 Mr Thompson has experienced several cyclones in the North-West but described the winds as being a cock-eyed bob that came up suddenly.
Derivatives
ˈcockˌeyedly adv.
ΚΠ
1927 G. Michel Ach Michel 162 He..was sizing me up cockeyedly.
1941 Scribner's Commentator May 107/1 In painful times, it is a much greater service to the world to go completely cockeyedly, delightfully haywire than it is to mix slapstick with preachment or philosophy.
1983 B. M. Villegas Strategies for Crisis v. 35 Cities Service was cockeyedly optimistic in its assessment of the Nido oil finds.
2005 Gazette (Montreal) (Nexis) 3 Dec. a31 Life can be a bummer. Sometimes, though, it's so curiously, cockeyedly fair that you can only grin goofily as it passes by.
ˈcockˌeyedness n.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > lack of understanding > foolishness, folly > absurdity, incongruity > [noun]
wantonnessc1405
absurdity1529
monstruousness1545
impertinency1573
ridiculousness1573
monstrousness1574
absurd1581
absurdness1582
incongruity1597
fancy1598
delirium1599
monstruosity1604
absurdum1606
foppishness1611
impertinence1616
nonsense1630
impertinentness1645
irrationality1647
monstrosity1651
nonsensicality1652
ridicule1668
ridicule1672
nonsensicalness1674
maggotry1706
preposterousness1727
zanyship1766
ridiculosity1773
drollness1823
stultification1832
nonsensity1834
farcicality1849
cockeyedness1858
1858 A. T. Mahan Let. 21 Nov. in Bulletin (Duke Univ. Libr.) (1931) No. 4. 34 Notwithstanding old Gil's cock-eyedness he made the best shot.
1889 Colonist (Launceston, Tasmania) 19 Jan. 13/3 And how about the artistic and other merits of ‘cockeyedness’?
1933 Amer. Photo-engraver June 364/1 John P. Kieffer has a nice case of ‘cockeyedness’ but he insists that it was not brought on by graduated refreshments.
2003 Observer (Nexis) 28 Sept. 27 There are echoes of this moral cockeyedness in the recent accolades accorded to that darling of the anti-globalisation movement, Antonio Negri.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2019; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.adv.1737