Meanings
- archaicA mild oath.
By cocke and pie, you ſhall not chooſe, Sir: come, come.
c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 41, column 12 more examples
By cock a pie and Mous-foot Dent bring's in, / Examples to express forbidden Sin:
1655, William Barton, Man's Monitor, or, the Free-school of Virtue; Holding Forth the Duties Required and Sins Forbidden in the Two Tables of the Law, London: W.D. for T. Underhill, unnumbered page; republished in Early English Books Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: Text Creation Partnership, p. 2011"How much a glass, think you?" says Fred, filling another bumper. "A half-crown, think ye?—a half-crown, Honeyman? By cock and pye, it is not worth a bender."
1854, Arthur Pendennis [pseudonym; William Makepeace Thackeray], chapter XI, in The Newcomes: Memoirs of a Most Respectable Family, volume I, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], →OCLC, pages 119–120Synonyms: by cock
Synonyms & antonyms
phraseA mild oath.
Cite this entry
by cock and pie. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/by%20cock%20and%20pie
“by cock and pie.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/by%20cock%20and%20pie. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “by cock and pie,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/by%20cock%20and%20pie.
Source: by cock and pie on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.