Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
adj
From the East End of London, or London generally.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: UK, not-comparable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
adj
Of or relating to people from this area or their speech style.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: not-comparable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
adj
Alternative form of Cockney.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: alt-of, alternative, not-comparable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
name
The dialect or accent of such Londoners.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
name
Alternative form of Cockney.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: alt-of, alternative
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Any Londoner.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: UK, slang
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A Londoner born within earshot of the city's Bow Bells, or (now generically) any working-class Londoner.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: UK
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A native or inhabitant of parts of the East End of London.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
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noun
An effeminate person; a spoilt child.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
adjective
relating to or resembling a cockney
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
adjective
characteristic of Cockneys or their dialect
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
the nonstandard dialect of natives of the east end of London
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: English, English language
noun
a native of the east end of London
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: Londoner
History
First attested in Samuel Rowland's 1600 The Letting of Humours Blood in the Head-Vaine as "a Bowe-bell Cockney", from Middle English cokenay (“a spoiled child; a milksop, an effeminate man”), used in the 16th c. by English country folk as a term of disparagement for city dwellers, of uncertain etymology. Possibly from Middle English cokeney (“a small, misshapen egg”), from coken (“cocks'(rooster’s)”) + ey (“egg”) or from Cockney and Cocknay, variants of Cockaigne, a mythical land of luxury (first attested in 1305) eventually used as a humorous epithet of London. Compare cocker (“to spoil a child”).
See Cockney.
Across languages
2 source translations are retained for this English entry.
