knock into a cocked hat
/ˈnɑk ˌɪntu ə ˌkɑkt ˈhæt/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.90 in modern English
41
Scrabble Score
19
Letters
2
Syllables
10
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "Tho' I'll tell ye what, stranger, I'm none your mealy mouthed fellows, and I'm little jubus [dubious] that you're one of them there [John Quincy] Adams men. And I've just seen the time that I'd knock sich a fellow into a cocked hat as quick as name it. But [Andrew] Jackson is safe enough and he's jist the chickin what's able; Adams is done for til he's made over."
- "[…] I jumped up and told Tom a short horse was soon curried, and I'd knock him into a cocked-hat if he said another word. And that broke up the conversation."
- "A N. York paper giving the details of a riot which occurred in that city, says that "a person was struck with a brick-bat, and knocked into a wheel-barrow." We have before heard of persons being "knocked into a grease spot," and of others who had been threatened with being "knocked into a cocked hat," but this is the first time we ever heard of any one being "knocked into a wheel barrow.""
- "[A] fortunate accident […] happened to me when I was a very little boy. A good-hearted old Irish nurse (whom I shall not forget in my will) took me up one day by the heels, when I was making more noise than was necessary, and, swinging me round two or three times, d——d my eyes for "a skreeking little spalpeen," and then knocked my head into a cocked hat against the bed-post. This, I say, decided my fate, and made my fortune."
- "A German astronomer says, that in twenty millions of years the earth will be destroyed by a comet! People may doubt and jeer at the idea: but wait till the time comes, and you’ll see that prophet, as the comet whisks along, knocking the earth into a ‘cocked hat,’ hanging by its tail, exclaiming, ‘I told you so, I told you so!’ But who will hear him?"
- "Basil sprang up with dancing eyes, and with three blows like battering-rams knocked the footman into a cocked hat."
Etymology
A cocked hat is one with the brim turned up to form two or three points (a bicorn or tricorn). The verb may refer: * to someone or something being knocked or hit out of shape like such a hat, or a person having a cocked hat forced on to their head; or * to a person knocking down all but three pins in a game of ninepins, or to the similar game called “cocked hat” in which only three pins are set up in a triangle, although these may simply be allusions to the shape of a tricorn. It has been pointed out that evidence linking these games to the verb is lacking.
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈnɑk ˌɪntu ə ˌkɑkt ˈhæt/
- British English: /ˈnɒk ˌɪntuː ə ˌkɒkt ˈhæt/
Usage
- Colloquial
- Dated
- Transitive verb
- British usage