cock-lairdn.
/ˈkɒklɛːd/, U.S. /ˈkɑkˌlɛrd/, Scottish English /ˈkɔklerd/ Scottish colloquial. Now rare.
A man who owns a small estate and cultivates it himself.
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society > society and the community > social class > nobility > aristocracy or upper class > gentry > [noun] > squire or laird > petty squire
squireling1682
cock-laird1721
squireen1812
squirelet1832
squiret1838
1721 J. Kelly Compl. Coll. Scotish Prov. 362 You breed of Water Kail, and cock Lairds, you need mickle Service.
1758 ‘Claudero’ Poems Sundry Occasions 18 In the Country he's rever'd By every Rustic, and Cock-laird, Whom he doth treat with Art and Skill.
1816 W. Scott Old Mortality Concl., in Tales of my Landlord 1st Ser. IV. 344 Niel Blane..died worth as much money as married Jenny to a cock laird.
1837 Sc. Monthly Mag. Jan. 116 The young varlet you are pleased to inquire after is the son of a cock-laird near Bucklyvie.
1936 Scotsman 9 Oct. 20/4 I was not surprised to learn that it had been originally the house of a ‘peerie laird’, or what they call on the mainland a bonnet-laird or cock-laird.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2019; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.1721- down on one's luck
- down on one's uppers
- down on the knuckle-bone
- down on the knucklebone
- down one's alley
- down one's street
- down payment
- down pillow
- down pointing
- down sheep
- down south
- down the cludgie
- down the course
- down the drain
- down the gurgler
- down the hatch
- down the line
- down the pan
- down the pike
- down the rabbit hole
- down the rathole
- down the red lane
- down the river
- down the road
- down the toilet