Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Behavior that is characteristic of or appropriate to a coxcomb; foppish conceit.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Coxcombs collectively.
  • noun The manners of a coxcomb; foppishness.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The manners of a coxcomb; foppishness.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun countable A behaviour or manner that is characteristic of a coxcomb; a foppish behaviour.
  • noun uncountable Behaviour or airs characteristic of a coxcomb; foppishness.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

coxcomb +‎ -ry

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Examples

  • The pistol had been bought and prepared for the purpose with the utmost nicety, not only for use but show; nor is it unfrequent to find in such instances of premeditated ferocity in design a fearful kind of coxcombry lavished upon the means.

    The Disowned — Volume 08 Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838

  • The pistol had been bought and prepared for the purpose with the utmost nicety, not only for use but show; nor is it unfrequent to find in such instances of premeditated ferocity in design a fearful kind of coxcombry lavished upon the means.

    The Disowned — Complete Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838

  • The gallants of that age, disinterested, aspiring, and lofty-minded, even in their coxcombry, were strangers to those degrading and mischievous pursuits which are usually termed low amours.

    The Monastery 2008

  • The extravagances of coxcombry in manners and apparel are indeed the legitimate and often the successful objects of satire, during the time when they exist.

    The Monastery 2008

  • He was of his own age, or a good deal younger, and from his dress and bearing might be of the same rank and calling, having all the air of coxcombry and pretension, which accorded with a handsome, though slight and low figure, and an elegant dress, in part hid by a large purple cloak.

    The Abbot 2008

  • And journalists have lavished upon this coxcombry praises which they have withheld from Newton and Locke, both worshippers of the Divinity from thorough examination and conviction!

    A Philosophical Dictionary 2007

  • Many a young partridge who strutted complacently among the stubble, with all the finicking coxcombry of youth, and many an older one who watched his levity out of his little round eye, with the contemptuous air of a bird of wisdom and experience, alike unconscious of their approaching doom, basked in the fresh morning air with lively and blithesome feelings, and a few hours afterwards were laid low upon the earth.

    The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club 2007

  • Moreover, his perpetual struggle with men and things leave them no time for the coxcombry of fashionable genius, which makes haste to gather in the harvests of a fugitive season, and whose vanity and self-love are as petty and exacting as a custom-house which levies tithes on all that comes in its way.

    Modeste Mignon 2007

  • Marsays, Ronquerolles, Ajuda-Pintos, and Vandenesses who shone there in all the glory of coxcombry among the best-dressed women of fashion in Paris — Lady Brandon, the Duchesse de Langeais, the

    Father Goriot 2003

  • He was already credited with the conquest of Mme. de Nucingen, and for this reason was a conspicuous figure; he caught the envious glances of other young men, and experienced the earliest pleasures of coxcombry.

    Father Goriot 2003

Comments

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  • Mutter this word when you have been served or been witness to an extra helping of half-baked ideas.

    February 12, 2007

  • What a word, what a word.

    September 24, 2011