nestle-cock

plural nestle-cocks · alternative nescock · alternative nestcock · alternative nestlecock

1. UKdialectalThe last-hatched chick of a brood, the weakling of a brood.

   Synonyms: nestlebub, runt

2. UKbroadlydialectalA mama's boy, a delicate child; a spoiled brat.

   You ignorant incompetent whey-faced nestlecock.

   1986, Patrick O'Brian, The Reverse of the Medal, page 161

   2 more examples

   Indeed, my mother was wont to call me your Nestle-cock, and I love you as well as she did.

   c. 1621, Thomas Middleton, John Webster, Anything for a Quiet Life, act 4, scene 1

   I meet with a double sense of this word Cockney: some taking it for, 1. One coaks'd or cocker'd (made a wanton or nestlecock of, delicately bred and brought up), so that when grown men or women they can endure no hardship, nor comport with pains-taking. 2. One utterly ignorant of husbandry or housewifery […]

   1662, Thomas Fuller, “Worthies of London”, in The History of the Worthies of England, volume 2, London: Thomas Tegg, published 1840, page 342

   Synonyms: milksop, brat, cockney, little emperor, mama's boy