cold-cock

cold-cock is the alternative form of cold cock.

Verb

cold-cock (third-person singular simple present cold-cocks, present participle cold-cocking, simple past and past participle cold-cocked)

(slang, transitive) To hit someone with a cold cock.
(slang, transitive) To hit someone with a club, bottle, or any object that gives additional force to the blow.
(slang, transitive) To knock someone unconscious.
- "I can't believe it. You cold-cocked the big stud." "He blindsided and cold-cocked him," Greer said proudly.1992, Ken Kesey, Sailor Song, page 153

cold cock (plural cold cocks)

(slang) A small heavy object used to give additional force to a punch or other blow of the hand.
- I had my hand on the lead cold cock and I knew it would not be enough. "Give this man a beer, Sport," […]. I hit him on the temple with the cold cock.1993, The Journal of Irish Literature, page 14

Noun
plural	cold-cocks
Verb
third-person singular present	cold-cocks
present participle	cold-cocking
past participle	cold-cocked
past	cold-cocked

What does cold-cock mean?: Cold-cock means to hit someone with a cold cock.
What is cold-cock the alternative form of?: Cold-cock is the alternative form of cold cock.
What part of speech is cold-cock?: Cold-cock is a verb.
What is the past tense of cold-cock?: The past tense of cold-cock is cold-cocked.

Adapted from Wiktionary: cold-cock (page history and authors); cold cock (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “cold-cock.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cold-cock. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.