Meaning & use
feeling cocky
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Meaning
phrasefixed phraseinformaldisapproving
Feeling too confident and sure of yourself, often in a way that annoys others or seems careless.
Grammar: Used after a linking verb like be, feel, or seem: He was feeling cocky after the win.
Patterns
- be feeling cocky
- feel cocky about something
After winning three games in a row, the team was feeling cocky and stopped practicing hard.
He was feeling cocky about the exam, so he didn't study and ended up failing.
She sounded a bit cocky on the phone, but she had good reason to be confident.
Common combinations
- feeling a bit cocky
- He was feeling a bit cocky after his promotion.
- sound cocky
- Don't sound cocky when you present your results.
- get cocky
- They got cocky and lost the match.
- cocky attitude
- His cocky attitude didn't win him any friends.
Synonyms and how they differ
- arrogant
- Arrogant is stronger and more disapproving; it suggests a person thinks they are better than everyone else, while cocky is more about overconfidence in a specific situation.
- overconfident
- Overconfident is more neutral and simply means too confident; cocky often adds a sense of showing off.
- smug
- Smug means very pleased with yourself in an annoying way, often because you know something others don't; cocky is more about bold self-assurance.
Opposites
Word family
- cockily adverb
- In a cocky manner.
- cockiness noun
- The quality of being cocky.
Commonly confused: feeling cocky or cockeyed?
feeling cocky vs cockeyed
Cockeyed means crooked or silly, not overconfident. Don't confuse it with cocky.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'feeling cocky' correctly?
Choose one answer.
Feeling cocky means being overconfident, which fits a situation like asking for a raise after a success. The other options use inappropriate contexts or prepositions.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “feeling cocky”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.