| does the word a sideways glance, with a wink, expressing derision or insinuation
Explanation:
If you cock an eyebrow or your ears, but how can you raise an eye? Well, I suppose you can roll it upwards in the socket, as if looking to heaven (in disbelief), but it doesn't mean that.
It means wink, or at least half-wink. Here's Webster (1913, revised):
"cock v.
4. To turn (the eye) obliquely and partially close its lid, as an expression of derision or insinuation."
http://machaut.uchicago.edu/?resource=Webster's&word=cock&us...
""_Hur-r-ur_!" growled Captain Revel, and Solly cocked his eye knowingly at Nic."
http://www.freefictionbooks.org/books/n/2638-nic-revel-by-ge...
" 'He . . . made wry faces, and, to use the vulgar phrase, cocked his eye at him.' (Cock an eye is merely, to glance)"
Eric Partridge, A Dictionary of Slang
http://books.google.es/books?id=tvRp1whVFUsC&pg=PA234&lpg=PA...
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Note added at 1 hr (2012-07-29 13:52:37 GMT)
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I missed out a phrase in my first sentence; I meant to write "If you cock an eyebrow or your ears, you raise them, but how can you raise an eye?
You yourself suggested "tilt", Michael. Interestingly, "cock" can express either upwards or sideways movement.
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Note added at 7 hrs (2012-07-29 19:28:05 GMT)
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"Cock an eye" does not mean "cock an eyebrow"! It has a different meaning, which is well-attested and quite clear.
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Note added at 8 hrs (2012-07-29 20:35:45 GMT)
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No, I don't think "cock", as a noun, can mean a squint; I haven't seen anything to indicate that it can. But to call someone "cockeyed" certainly does mean that he/she has a squint. The idea is that the eye is permanently "cocked" -- turned (in relation to the other idea). So the basis of this usage just confirms the sense of "cock" as turn (sideways).
I'm sure the idea here is a glance, especially a quizzical, insinuating or knowing glance, and essentially a sidelong glance. "Cock" as "raise" (which of course it can also mean) doesn't seem to me to be relevant here.
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Note added at 8 hrs (2012-07-29 20:40:33 GMT)
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Interestingly, here's confirmation from Webster 1913 of the meaning of "cock" as a verbal noun:
"The act of cocking; also, the turn so given; as, a cock of the eyes"
http://www.1828-dictionary.com/d/search/word,cock
This, of course, refers back to the definition I quoted above: "cock the eye" as "turn the eye obliquely".
| Charles Davis
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Native speaker of: English
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