See Cockney.

cockney (plural cockneys)

1. A native or inhabitant of parts of the East End of London.
   • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 3, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC ↗:

     A cockney in a rural village was stared at as much as if he had entered a kraal of Hottentots.

2. (obsolete) An effeminate person; a spoilt child.
   • c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act IV, scene i]:

     This great lubber, the world, will prove a cockney.

• (effeminate man) nancy, pansy, sissy; see also Thesaurus:effeminate man

• Portuguese: cockney

cockney (not comparable)

1. Alternative form of Cockney

1. Alternative form of Cockney

First attested in Samuel Rowland's 1600 The Letting of Humours Blood in the Head-Vaine as "a Bowe-bell Cockney", from Middle English cokenay, used in the 16th c.

• (British) IPA: /ˈkɒk.ni/

cockney (not comparable)

1. (UK) From the East End of London, or London generally.
2. Of or relating to people from this area or their speech style, traditionally known for its rhyming slang.

cockney (plural cockneys)

1. (UK, slang) Any Londoner.
   • 1859, J.C. Hotten, A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant and Vulgar Words, section 22 ↗:

     COCKNEY, a native of London. An ancient nickname implying effeminacy, used by the oldest English writers, and derived from the imaginary fool's paradise, or lubberland, Cockaygne.

2. (UK) A Londoner born within earshot of the city's Bow Bells, or (now, generically) any working-class Londoner.
   • 1617, Fynes Moryson, An Itinerary:

     Londoners, and all within the sound of Bow Bell, are in reproach called Cockneys.

   • 1617, John Minsheu, Ductor in Linguas:

     A Cockney or Cocksie, applied only to one born within the sound of Bow bell, that is in the City of London.

   • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 26, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC ↗:

     “Charming place, ma’am,” said he, bowing to the widow; “noble prospect—delightful to us Cocknies, who seldom see anything but Pall Mall.”

   • 2000 December 18, BBC and Bafta Tribute to Michael Caine, 16:43-17:05:

     Parkinson: You made films before, but the part that really made your name was Zulu, wasn't it […] and there of course—against type—you played the toff, you played the officer.
     Caine: I played the officer, yeah, and everybody thought I was like that. Everyone was so shocked when they met me, this like Cockney guy had played this toffee-nosed git.

1. The dialect or accent of such Londoners.