nestle-cock

See also: nestlecock

English

Alternative forms

• nescock, nestcock, nestlecock

Etymology

From nestle +‎ cock. Compare nest-cock & nest-cockle.

Noun

nestle-cock (plural nestle-cocks)

1. (UK, dialectal) The last-hatched chick of a brood, the weakling of a brood.
2. (UK, dialectal, by extension) A mama's boy, a delicate child; a spoiled brat.
   • c. 1621, Thomas Middleton, John Webster, Anything for a Quiet Life, act 4, scene 1:

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

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

     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 […]

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

     You ignorant incompetent whey-faced nestlecock.

Synonyms

• (the weakling of a brood): nestlebub, runt
• (a delicate person): milksop, sissy, softy, wuss; see also Thesaurus:milksop
• (a spoiled child): brat, cockney, little emperor, mama's boy

References

• Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd ed. "nestle-cock, n.". Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2003.