In a mile-ago thread I noted that I was retiring to think of salacious headings for an innocuous thread ... and here it is!

Cock-up is defined as a muddle in the OED-CD.

It's a phrase of British origin I believe. (Always did have a way with words, them Brits!)

Then, following SOED directions, I looked up cock and there are several definitions that run on and on and on.

Well, now that I have your attention and you have LIU .... comments?

This expression gets the same reactions as another Brit usage, "keep your pecker up" when USns and others are not aware that the pecker referred to is the chin.

Wow you are soo right-- cock has so so many meanings-- in today's NYtimes crossword-- Clue-- Commode part--
answer--(Ball)cock-- and i have heard cock -- in a similar manner for a faucet-- turn the cock-- to open the valve..

and the bird-- (which gives rise to other meanings!) as well as cock up...

I can only think (no OED handy) it must be a fairly old word-- old words keep picking up new meanings-- and sometimes forgets to lose their old ones... what do faucets (or spigots) have in common with roosters? or how is it that these two radically different things came to have the same name?

or is there a third meaning to cock-- that hold the key to the link? (as in "ride a cock horse to banberry cross..." what is a cock horse? -- (well yes, i know its a broomstick with a "horse head and reins" that children ride... but why a cock horse? I can't remember what we call them-- (a pony stick?)

there are fourteen(14) unique *entries* [ycliu] (with I can't guess at how many senses) for the word, 9 nouns and 5 verbs. plus, it's an erroneous form of the verb calk (that for the creative spellers amongst us ;).

Mr. Quinlon to the rescue again: http://www.quinion.com/words/qa/qa-coc1.htm

Whilst writing I would like to express my sincere thanks to the Jakarta chapter of AA, thanks to whose untiring efforts I have now managed to escape from the clutches of my addiction.

Bingley

Mr Quinion is no doubt correct as to the quoted version of "cock-up", but surely it originated as the old printing term. At least that's how I've always heard it. A cock-up is when one or more typeset letters are "cocked up" above their neighbours, resulting in uneven printing. (Old-fashioned printing, of course—can't happen these days!) I would guess that this meaning of cock, in the sense of turned up, elevated, erected or whatever, is one of the very earliest usages. "Cock-eyed", in the sense of crooked or out of alignment, is also pretty common down this-a-way.

lusy

almost all of the usual senses seem to stem from the name of the fowl, dating way back to the late 9th century. cock-up (also given as cockup) itself, as a noun, goes like this:

1. A distinct turn up at the end or tip.
1826 Miss Mitford Village Ser. ii. (1863) 429 The cock-up of the nose, which seems+to be snuffing up intelligence.

2. A hat or cap cocked or turned up in front.
a1693 in Sc. Presbyt. Eloquence (1738) 129, I have been this Year of God preaching against the Vanity of Women, yet I see my own Daughter in the Kirk Even now have as high a Cockup as any of you all. 1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. xxv, Your cockups and your fallal duds—see what they a' come to.

3. A fresh-water and estuarian fish of India (Lates calcarifer). [Origin of name uncertain: see Yule.]
1845 Stocqueler Handbk. Brit. India (1854) 283 Cockup, crabs, lobsters, shrimps. 1854 Badham Halieut. 114 The Lates Nobilis of the erudite, somewhat freely rendered ‘cock-up-fish’ by the Bengalese.

4. A blunder, a mistake, a confused situation. slang.
1948 Partridge Dict. Forces' Slang 44 He made a complete cock-up of his orders. 1959 I. Jefferies 13 Days xiii. 206 ‘I was thinking of going out to Tikvah today, sir,’ I said, and did I make a cock-up of that job. 1964 J. Porter Dover One i. 11 George turned the local boys on it and you've never seen such a cock-up in your life!

One of the more "visual" phrases - "Cock of the walk" -
What does it bring to your mind/imagination?

And if you have the misfortune of breaking your wrist, the orthopedist will apply a cockup splint, meaning that the metacarpals are dorsiflexed about 45 degrees with the palm supported by padding on the splint, essential to obtain maximum wrist function.

as in "ride a cock horse to banberry cross..." what is a cock horse? -- (well yes, i know its a broomstick with a "horse head and reins" that children ride... but why a cock horse? I can't remember what we call them-- (a pony stick?)

"Ride a-cock horse to Banbury Cross . . . "
is the correct version, so it is not "a cock (adj) horse," but "a-cock (adv) horse"; i.e, riding with one leg either side of the beast, rather than side-saddle. Which, of course, is the way that you ride the child's toy horse.

I read many years ago in a genealogy book written by a very erudite English clergyman that "cock" is a diminutive, and he cited the "cock horse to Banbury Cross" as an example. He went on to mention that "cock" added to names was a diminutive, so that "Hancock" originally meant "Little John".