21 October 2015
coxcomb
[koks-kohm]
noun
1. a conceited, foolish dandy; pretentious fop.
2. Archaic. head; pate.
3. Obsolete, cockscomb (def 2).
Origin of coxcomb
1565-1575; spelling variant of cockscomb
Related forms
coxcombical [koks-kom-i-kuh l, -koh-mi-], coxcombic, adjective
coxcombically, adverb
Synonyms
1. dude, popinjay, jackanapes.
Dictionary.com
Examples from the Web for coxcomb
Historical Examples
Mr. Dashwood could not be mistaken for a pedant, unless a coxcomb be a sort of pedant.
Tales And Novels, Volume 1 (of 10)
Maria Edgeworth
Somebody says, that nature may make a fool, but a coxcomb is always of his own making.
Tales And Novels, Volume 4 (of 10)
Maria Edgeworth
He hints that this is perhaps the reason why a coxcomb always believes himself to be handsome.
Critical Miscellanies (Vol 2 of 3)
John Morley
Today’s quote
Our own heart, and not other men’s opinions form our true honor.
– Samuel Taylor Coleridge
On this day
21 October 1492 – Christopher Columbus discovers America.
21 October 1772 – birth of Samuel Taylor Colleridge, English poet. Died 25 July 1834.
21 October 1833 – birth of Alfred Bernhard Nobel, Swedish chemist and armaments manufacturer, inventor of dynamite and the Nobel Prizes. Was known as the ‘Merchant of Death’. A newspaper stated that he ‘became rich by finding ways to kill people faster than ever before‘. As a result, he decided to leave a better legacy than that and used his estate to establish and fund the Nobel Prizes, which included the Nobel Peace Prize. Died 10 December 1896.
21 October 1967 – Thousands of anti-Vietnam-war protestors attempt to storm the Pentagon.
21 October 1969 – death of Jack Kerouac, American beat-generation writer, ‘On the road‘. Born 12 March 1922.
21 October 2015 – Back to the Future Day. At 4.29pm on 21 October 2015, Doc Emmett Brown and Marty McFly arrived from the year 1955 in a time machine made from a Delorean in the hit 1989 film, Back to the Future 2. Apart from the time machine, the most famous invention featured in the movie was the hoverboard.