Post Author
Do you often hear the word cocky? Do you wish to know what does cocky means? Do you use the word Cocky often without knowing what cocky means?
If that’s the case and you agree with one or more scenarios that are mentioned above. Then, this article is for you. This article tells in detail what cocky mean, along with suitable examples to clarify the meaning.
1. What Does Cocky Mean in an Example?
It is likely to hear the word cocky for a person. You may also wonder what cocky means. So, let’s get into knowing what being a bit cocky mean in real terms.
Have you ever met someone who at first seems to be self-confident? You appreciate them, and they too behave pleasingly. After all, confidence is a much-needed component of a personality. However, after a point, you realize that there is something wrong.
The person has a kind of attitude in them that other people will not admire at all and at all the time. You feel if the first impression of that person was certainly diverting or wrong.
![What Does Cocky Mean: Your Best Guide [2022] 2 Photo by mohamed hassan on Pixabay/ Copyright,2022](https://icytales.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/businessman-gc8b000083_1280.png)
But isn’t self-confidence a good thing? What could have been wrong with that person then? Let’s explore what exactly gets wrong with the attitudes of such people.
Self-confidence or being self-assured is, no doubt, vital. But not over-confidence. Right? You would have understood what was wrong with that person in the above paragraph. You can also say that the person was cocky. But only after knowing fully what cocky means.
2. Cocky According to Dictionaries
Different dictionaries provide us with different definitions in their attempts to define ‘What cocky means?’ We will refer to some of these definitions and infer the definition of cocky.
![What Does Cocky Mean: Your Best Guide [2022] 3 What does cocky mean](https://icytales.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/female-g5d52688ba_1920.jpg)
According to Oxford Dictionary, when someone is too confident about oneself that it becomes annoying for others. Then, it is referred to as Cockiness in personal qualities. The origin of this word took place in mid of 16th Century.
The word is formed as Cock (as lecherous or unpleasant) +y = Cocky.
On the other hand, someone who is cocky is so sure and confident about their abilities that it irritates other people’s account Collins English Dictionary.
According to Thesaurus, the synonyms for Cocky are arrogant, brash, conceited, overconfident, presumptuous, and pertly self-assertive in English and other languages.
We see that all the definitions of ‘cocky’ account somewhat of disapproval for that quality. Moreover, cocky is a word that is expected to be used informally and not formally at all.
Inferring from the dictionaries we can say that if someone is overly self-confident and self-assertive that people around that person find it intolerable. Then, it is what being cocky means. Overly self-confident as quality is the problem then with the cocky person.
3. What is an Example of Cocky?
You may hear an individual saying,
“So, I have all the answers. I have this, this and that.”
“There is no one like me.”
“Ohh, that’s a game of my left hand. I can complete that task in minutes.”
“You know nothing. I am the master.”
These are all examples of Cocky.
Why so?
Do we even need more examples? If you observe the above-written sentences, you may observe that the speakers are too much focused on themselves (probably with a cocky grin) that they are arrogantly ignorant towards others. They have an egoistic attitude, and they are egotistically referring to themselves and their abilities.
4. A Cocky Person
![What Does Cocky Mean: Your Best Guide [2022] 4 Cocky person](https://icytales.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/i-741507_1920-1024x724.jpg)
You are likely to meet and interact with cocky people in your daily lives. At that time, you may also wish to find out some words from your vocabulary to refer to or describe that person.
We all have that arrogant individual who tends to show off what they can do. Cockiness is arrogance focused on abilities, according to the licensed clinical psychologist Dr. Ramani Durvasula. An arrogant person may play up what they can do, and exaggerate a bit or massively, as well.
5. Are Cocky People Narcissists?
One may tend to use the word Narcissist as a synonym of cocky. But that’s not how it is.
We can understand it with the help of two statements.
1. A Narcissistic person can be Cocky as well. One can refer to their personal quality as Cocky Cockily.
2. However, all Cocky individuals are not necessarily meant to be narcissists.
The first statement is all clear. Because a narcissist would show off their abilities, and we can call them cocky. But, even a person who isn’t a Narcissist can be cocky. Right?
Therefore, Narcissist can’t be used as a synonym for a Cocky person. Exceptions are always there; for example, you may find a person who is cocky and Narcissist as well. However, it’s just an exception. Hence, don’t use Narcissist as a synonym for cocky.
Because there is a huge difference between what cocky means and what narcissists mean. Some qualities may overlap, such as, self-confidence or self-assertion.
6. How to Identify if Someone Is Cocky?
Cocky people are not too hard to identify, you can simply identify them with their cocky grin. You just need to know some signs of a cocky person. Here are the signs of a cocky person.
6.1. Arrogance
Getting arrogant in some situations is necessary if it’s an aspect of someone’s personality. In other words, you find someone to be arrogant every single time then, the indications are that this person is cocky.
6.2. My Way Is the Right Way
The second indication to find out cockiness in a person is their stickiness with their way. It’s all right to want things done in a certain way, but a cocky person would do that with a bit cocky air around.
However, not even listening to others and sticking to just one’s own ideas and ways as the best one ever is signs of what cocky means in a person. They want their ideas their expectations to be credited as best and taken as they want. If not done, they get annoyed.
6.3. Bragging About One’s Accomplishments
Ever met a cocky swagger who is overly bragging about one’s accomplishments at another level. That is one more example of cocky.
6.4. Most Important
Someone who is Cocky thinks they are the best or more important as compared to other people and behave in a way that is rude or too confident. They think that they are superior to any other person present around them.
6.5. Everyone Loves Me
If you find someone who thinks everyone loves them and they are the most wanted person ever. They aren’t just self-assured but are simply cocky ones.
6.6. Constantly late
Reaching late once in a while is totally okay. However, if it happens constantly, it shows the person is doing it intentionally. The person doesn’t value other people’s time. On the other hand, if someone gets late, they are the first ones to comment because they value their time or think that their time is of most importance.
6.7. Interrupting Others a Lot
When one interrupts others a lot just to illustrate that they have something more valuable to say than what others are saying, it simply means they have little regard for the opinion of others, and this could be a sign of cockiness.
7. Difference Between Self-Confident and Cocky
Self-confidence is a belief or feeling that I would be able to do some work.
On the other hand, no one can do this work the way I can do, or I can do it in the best way is what cocky means.
We can see that confidence is a part of both. However, confidence in a cocky person is much beyond what is called a balance or limit.
Confidence attracts and pulls others towards the person having it. On the contrary, cockiness pushes people away. So, a rule of push and pull can be used to understand the difference between Cocky (overly self-confident or self-assertive) and a Self-confident person.
8. Quick Signs of a Cocky Person
- Ego towards others, including thinking they are better than others.
- Rude, looking down upon other people while commenting about them.
- Inability to admit to mistakes and inefficient skills.
- Lack of eye contact, always interested in just themselves.
- Inability to not let the communication focus on themselves. For example, “Ohh, you achieved that. You know, I can do it even faster”.
- Nothing to learn from others. Due to ‘I’ being the knower of everything.
- Can’t accept failures.
- Have an instinct to rule over others and make others feel inferior.
9. Is it Bad to Be Cocky?
As we understood till now about our word of the day ‘cocky’ we can explain that arrogance, over-confidence and egoistic attitudes are the characteristics of a cocky person.
You can also ask yourself if you would like to be around a person having such qualities? To be honest, no one likes to be around an arrogant person because it is a quality that does not attract people at all.
But, some people may be cocky and find it difficult to even recognize it. One may find getting cocky advantageous in some situations, and that’s totally fine. However, one should also be considerate and careful of its possible impacts.
Last Updated on by kalidaspandian