cocksure
Americanadjective
-
perfectly sure or certain; completely confident in one's own mind.
She was cocksure that she was able to do the job better than anyone else.
-
too certain; overconfident.
He was so cocksure he would win the election that he didn't even bother to campaign.
-
Obsolete. perfectly secure or safe.
adjective
Other Word Forms
- cocksurely adverb
- cocksureness noun
Etymology
Origin of cocksure
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
With Maps of the Country Through Which the Routes Pass, in the Northern, Middle, and Eastern States, a book whose title was as grand and cocksure as the New World it so thrillingly described.
From Literature
Tacopina and Rocky both scoffed at the plea deal last month and remained cocksure throughout the proceedings.
From Los Angeles Times
The potential for damagingly inaccurate outputs is heightened by AI bots’ natural language capabilities, with which they offer even absurdly inaccurate answers with convincingly cocksure elan.
From Los Angeles Times
They misquoted him to his face, misrepresented his work, and spouted cocksure inanities showing with every word that, scientifically speaking, they have no idea what they’re talking about.
From Los Angeles Times
In January, the cocksure governor told Times reporter Taryn Luna in an interview: “I think it’s going to win overwhelmingly. Period. Full stop.”
From Los Angeles Times
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
