COCKSURE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does cocksure mean? 

• COCKSURE (adjective)
  The adjective COCKSURE has 1 sense:

1. marked by excessive confidence

  Familiarity information: COCKSURE used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• COCKSURE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Marked by excessive confidence

Synonyms:

cocksure; overconfident; positive

Context example:

the less he knows the more positive he gets

Similar:

confident (having or marked by confidence or assurance)

Derivation:

cocksureness (total certainty or greater certainty than circumstances warrant)

 Context examples 

Does it not strike you as a little singular that this McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of marrying his son to Turner’s daughter, who is, presumably, heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would follow?

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)