cock up

verb

To ruin (something) unintentionally; to fuck up, mess up, or screw up.

Similar
balls upbollocks upbugger upfuck upmess upmuck upscrew upprick up
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Meanings

verbcock up (third-person singular simple present cocks up, present participle cocking up, simple past and past participle cocked up)

present singular third person cocks up · participle present cocking up · participle past cocked up · past cocked up

  1. CommonwealthIrelandUKambitransitivemildlyslangvulgarTo ruin (something) unintentionally; to fuck up, mess up, or screw up.

    It was cocking her up with gimcrack notions about ladies till she'd be ashamed to look at her own hands after she had done a day's work with them.

    1876 May – 1877 July, Anthony Trollope, “‘Wonderful Bird!’”, in The American Senator […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1877, →OCLC, page 282
    1 more example

    I'd take the stick to his back and beat him while I could stand over him—as I done many a time before. The mother, you know, she cocks him up with this and that. . . .

    1904–1907 (date written), James Joyce, “Ivy Day in the Committee Room”, in Dubliners, London: Grant Richards, published June 1914, →OCLC, page 146

    Synonyms: balls up, bollocks up, bugger up, fuck up, mess up, muck up, screw up

Synonyms & antonyms

verbTo ruin (something) unintentionally; to fuck up, mess up, or screw up.

Similar
balls upbollocks upbugger upfuck upmess upmuck upscrew up

More synonyms by meaning

verbto stick up

Similar
prick upprick
Broader
rearerect
Also see
dick upgoof upmake a hash ofprickprick up

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

The first citation in the Oxford English Dictionary is from the Dictionary of Forces' Slang (1948). The OED suggests that it derives ultimately from the noun cock, but gives no further detail. The nature of the earliest citation suggests that this expression entered the wider language from military slang, making etymologies from typesetting or archery (see alternate meanings of cock-up) unlikely. One proposal is that the phrase originated describing an arrangement of the yards of a square-rigged vessel in port. Modern folk etymology has sometimes suggested that "cock-up" refers to a male erection, or to the phrase "cacked up", but neither is supported.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Finnish pilata, tärvellä
  • pilatato ruin (something) unintentionally
  • tärvelläto ruin (something) unintentionally
  • sotkeato ruin (something) unintentionally
  • möhlätäto ruin (something) unintentionally
German verbocken, versauen
  • verbockento ruin (something) unintentionally
  • versauento ruin (something) unintentionally
  • versemmelnto ruin (something) unintentionally
Polish partaczyć, spartaczyć
  • partaczyćto ruin (something) unintentionally
  • spartaczyćto ruin (something) unintentionally
  • spieprzaćto ruin (something) unintentionally
  • spieprzyćto ruin (something) unintentionally
Cite this entry
APA

cock up. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cock%20up

MLA

“cock up.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cock%20up. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “cock up,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cock%20up.

Source: cock up on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.