Cockshy (A)
. A free fling or “shy” at something. The allusion is to the once popular Shrove-Tuesday sport of shying or casting stones or sticks at cocks. This sport is now superseded by pigeon-shooting, which is thought to be more aristocratic! but can hardly be deemed more humane.
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Entry taken from
Dictionary of Phrase and Fable,
edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.