cock-up

See also: cockup and cock up

English[edit]

cock-up (plural cock-ups)

(mildly vulgar slang) A mistake.
(obsolete, Britain, printers' slang) A superior letter. A lower-case letter placed above the baseline and made smaller than ordinary script; traditionally used in abbreviations.
- 1824, Johnson, John, Typographia, volume 2, page 33:
  The first word of every section or chapter is generally put in small capitals, after a small neat cock-up letter.
(obsolete, Scotland) A roll or twist of hair worn at the nape of the neck; a bun.
- 1888, Mackay, Charles, A Dictionary of Lowland Scotch‎^[1], page 30:
  Cockernonie, a gathering up of the hair of women, after a fashion similar to that of the modern "chignon," and sometimes called a "cock-up." Mr. Kirkton, of Edinburgh, preaching against "cock-ups"—of which chignons were the representatives a quarter of a century ago—said: "I have been all this year preaching against the vanity of women, yet I see my own daughter in the kirk even now with as high a 'cock-up' as any one of you all."

(mistake): balls-up (mildly taboo slang), foul-up, fuck-up (taboo slang), screw-up (slang)
(hairstyle): bun, chignon

(superior letter): Farmer, John Stephen (1891) Slang and Its Analogues‎^[2], volume 2, page 145