to cock a snook
- idiom
- Archaic
:
desafiar
- During the debate, she cocked a snook at her opponent's arguments, clearly showing her disagreement.
Examples
-
It's been 200 years since an Indian cocked a snook... at the British Empire and got away with it.
-
After ignoring the rules for too long, she decided to cock a snook at the authority by wearing her favorite t-shirt to the meeting.
-
He was so tired of being told what to do that he cocked a snook at his boss and quit his job.
Synonyms
8
9.2
To show open disrespect by refusing to follow rules or customs
3
8.6
To speak rudely to someone
1
9.9
To show anger by holding up the middle finger at someone
To show you do not respect someone by putting your thumb to your nose and wiggling your fingers
To put your thumb on your nose and wiggle your fingers to show disrespect
Behave in a very rude and insulting way to other people
To behave very rudely and make other people angry or upset
To tell someone to go away using rude language
To make fun of someone in a mean way to show you dislike them
Antonyms
How Disrespectful
Surface Forms
Morphology
cock + a + snook
The phrase is idiomatic: 'cock' (to tilt) plus 'a snook' does not transparently combine into 'openly show disrespect' because 'snook' has no obvious, relevant lexical meaning and the whole expression refers to a conventional contemptuous gesture. This culture-specific, historically grounded usage is not predictable from the parts, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words would still be unlikely to infer the idiomatic sense.
Etymology
Cock a snook may come from a childish gesture where you put your thumb on your nose and wiggle your fingers, and the move was called cocking the snook, with 'snook' meaning 'nose'. That's why it now means 'to show disrespect' or 'to defy' someone.