Other Crap

I love British colloquialisms: Oh,oh. The Democrats are already cock-a-hoop. Especially Ted Kennedy.

• I was also cock-a-hoop a while back, but a shot of penicillin fixed me right up
• The OED has a ton on this one:
  
  Phrase. to set (the) cock on (the) hoop, cock a hoop: app. to turn on the tap and let the liquor flow; hence, to drink without stint; to drink and make good cheer with reckless prodigality. Obs.
  

  1529 More Comf. agst. Trib. ii. Wks. 1177/2 They+set them downe and dryncke well for our sauiours sake, sette cocke a hoope, and fyll in all the cuppes at ones, and then lette Chrystes passion paye for all the scotte. 1538 Bale Thre Lawes 1806 Cheare now maye I make & set cocke on the houpe. Fyll in all the pottes, and byd me welcome hostesse. 1540 Palsgr. Acolastus (Wedgwood), Let us sette the cocke on the hope and make good chere within doores. 1562 J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 54 He maketh hauok, and setteth cocke on the hoope. He is so laueis, the stocke beginneth to droope. 1606 Heywood 2nd Pt. If you know not me Wks. 1874 I. 257 These knaues Sit cocke-a-hope, but Hobson pays for all. 1611 Cotgr., Se goguer, to+make good cheere, set cocke-a-hoope, throw the house out at windowes. 1621 Molle Camerar. Liv. Libr. iii. i. 147 Resolued+to set cock in hoope, and in guzling and good cheere spent all that was left. 1658 R. Brathwait Hon. Ghost 26 (N.) The cock on hoop is set, Hoping to drink their lordships out of debt.

  
  By extension: (a) To abandon oneself to reckless enjoyment. (b) To cast off all restraint, become reckless. (c) To give a loose to all disorder, to set all by the ears. Obs.

  
  1547 Boorde Introd. Knowl. 117 Now I am a frysker, all men doth on me looke; What should I do, but set cocke on the hoope? 1560 J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 441b, There be found diuers+which setting cocke on houpe, beleue nothinge at all, neither regard they what, reason, what, honesty, or what thing conscience doth prescribe. 1576 Newton tr. Lemnie's Complex. (1633) 221 Lighting in the company of amorous and beautifull Damosels, they set cocke on hoope, and+become as merry as the merriest. 1592 Shakes. Rom. & Jul. i. v. 83 Youle make a Mutinie among the Guests: You will set cocke a hoope, youle be the man. [Some would connect this rather with 2 or 3.]
  

  
  As an exclamation of reckless joy or elation.
  

  1568 Jacob & Esau v. i. in Hazl. Dodsley II. 246 Then, faith, cock-on-hoop, all is ours! thou, who but he?

  
  as adv. in phrase to set (oneself or something) cock-a-hoop: i.e. in a position or state of unrestrained elation or exultation. [Quot. 1689 prob. influenced by cock n.1 the fowl.] Obs.
  

  1689 Trial Pritchard v. Papillon 6 Nov. (1684) 31 He sets himself Cock-a-hoop, as if there were no one that took care of the City besides himself. 1720 Gay Poems (1745) II. 123 Your eyes, lips, breasts are so provoking—They set my heart more cock-a-hoop Than could whole seas of cray-fish soupe.

  
  as pred. adj. (in to be, make cock-a-hoop): In a state of elation; crowing with exultation. [Here association with the fowl becomes evident.]
  

  1663 Butler Hud. i. iii. 14 Hudibras+having routed the whole Troop, With Victory was Cock-a-hoop. 1673 Marvell Reh. Transp. II. 264 You were exceedingly straitned in time; and then a little after were all Cock-a-Hoop. 1677 Coles, To be cock-a-hoop, ampullari, insolescere, cristas erigere. c1690 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Cock-a-hoop, upon the high Ropes, Rampant, Transported. 1719 Cordial Low Spirits 162 The church was very cock-a-hoop, and held up its head and crow'd. 1817 M. Edgeworth Love & L. ii. i, To make Catty cockahoop, I told her that, etc. 1834 Greville Mem. Geo. IV (1875) III. xxiii. 104 The Tories have been mighty cock-a-hoop. 1887 H. Smart Cleverly Won x. 86 They are all as cock-a-hoop about her chance as ever I saw folks in my life.

  
  as attrib. adj. Elated, exultant, boastfully and loudly triumphant.
  

  1837 Gen. P. Thompson Exerc. (1842) IV. 201 The cock-a-hoop hilarity of the Tories. 1863 Mrs. C. Clarke Shaks. Char. iv. 102 We never lose the cock-a-whoop vein in Bottom's character.

  
  adv. Elatedly, triumphantly.
  

  1809 W. Irving Knickerb. iii. vi, That ingenuous habit of mind which always thinks aloud; which rides cock-a-hoop on the tongue. 1871 Member for Paris II. 10 M. Paul+began unwisely to crow cock-a-whoop before the time.

  
  Hence cock-a-hooping vbl. n.; cock-a-hoopish; cock-a-hoopness. (nonce-wds.)
  

  1862 Sat. Rev. XIV. 776/2 These groans and these cock-a-whoopings at the sale of the Cornhill. 1885 Globe 9 May 3/1 The younger sister—for France considers her as such—is getting too ‘cock-a-hoopish’. 1889 Ibid. 23 Nov. 574/1 The boisterous cock-a-hoopness of some of his present associates.