cog1
[kog, kawg]
- (not in technical use) a gear tooth, formerly especially one of hardwood or metal, fitted into a slot in a gearwheel of less durable material.
- a cogwheel.
- a person who plays a minor part in a large organization, activity, etc.: He's just a small cog in the financial department.
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- (of an electric motor) to move jerkily.
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- to roll or hammer (an ingot) into a bloom or slab.
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- slip a cog, to make a blunder; err: One of the clerks must have slipped a cog.
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Origin of cog1
1200–50; Middle English cogge, probably < Scandinavian; compare Swedish, Norwegian kugg cog
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
cog1
- any of the teeth or projections on the rim of a gearwheel or sprocket
- a gearwheel, esp a small one
- a person or thing playing a small part in a large organization or process
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- (tr) metallurgy to roll (cast-steel ingots) to convert them into blooms
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Word Origin
C13: of Scandinavian origin; compare Danish kogge, Swedish kugge, Norwegian kug
cog2
- slang to cheat (in a game, esp dice), as by loading a dice
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Word Origin
C16: originally a dice-playing term, of unknown origin
cog3
- a tenon that projects from the end of a timber beam for fitting into a mortise
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- (tr) to join (pieces of wood) with cogs
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Word Origin
C19: of uncertain origin
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for slip a cog
cog
n.
c.1300, "cog wheel;" late 14c., "tooth on a wheel," probably a borrowing from a Scandinavian language (cf. Norwegian kugg "cog") and cognate with Middle High German kugel "ball."
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Idioms and Phrases with slip a cog
slip a cog
Also, slip a gear or one's gears. Lose one's ability to reason soundly or make correct judgments, as in She must have slipped a cog or she would never have gone out barefoot in December, or What's the matter with him? Has he slipped his gears? These slangy usages allude to a mechanical failure owing to the cog of a gear or a gear failing to mesh. The first dates from about 1930, the variant from the 1960s.
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cog
In addition to the idiom beginning with cog
- cog in the wheel
also see:
- slip a cog
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The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.