cocky

El-Sayed admits he can be cocky, and the result called for an immediate conciliatory tone to welcome skeptical Stevens voters.

From Slate ● Aug. 8, 2026

As Randolph described it, Wallace has a cocky swagger but he backs it up by being the hardest worker on the team every day.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 2026

Hopkins registered the trademark in 2018 and began contacting authors who had also used the descriptor — and the list was long, because the cocky, arrogant hero is a romance trope.

From Salon ● Jul. 7, 2026

Mr. Brody’s Nick has an ingratiating, cocky but boyish allure that makes Jacki’s attraction to him persuasive.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 16, 2026

“Not so cocky now,” the Boo Hag snarls.

From "The Manifestor Prophecy" by Angie Thomas

“Bricks seemed to work for a while, but cockies got too clever,” one survey respondent reported.

From New York Times ● Sep. 12, 2022

“If we’re not doing it, the cockies will blast them,” Mr. White said, using a slang term for small-scale farmers.

From New York Times ● May 22, 2021

Dahlstrom is most comfortable away from the office, out in the ute, visiting cockies, tradesmen and factory managers.

From Time Magazine Archive

The cockies over there used to hang the meat up on the branches of the trees, and just shake it whenever they wanted to feed the fowls.

From While the Billy Boils by Henry Lawson

He was not going to squat henlike on his place as the cockies around him did.

From My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin

If that’s not enough meta-weirdness for you, throughout the movie, Nick regularly converses with a younger, cockier version of himself, “Nicky,” who goads him to recapture his former stardom.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 21, 2022

Despite having been one of the Endurance's cockier crew members, Ms Clague said her grandfather was a much quieter man once he came home.

From BBC ● Feb. 26, 2022

Also: Is there anything cockier than wearing sunglasses inside a government building?

From Slate ● Jul. 12, 2019

Deng and Chen tried to build their own small version of campus life, with Deng taking the cockier, worldly lead and Chen playing his sidekick.

From New York Times ● Aug. 9, 2017

There was something so much cockier about him this year, even the way he stood and walked, like there was more weight in his gait—he never hurried anymore.

From "Tradition" by Brendan Kiely

Especially in recent years, as the city grapples with what often feels like an unending stream of plopped-in arrivals from New York, the country’s cockiest metropolis.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2020

In other words, he was one of the cockiest players I've ever seen.

From Golf Digest ● Mar. 11, 2020

In “The Right Stuff” Tom Wolfe revealed that the seven Mercury astronauts – the cockiest, most sneeringly confident fighter pilots on the planet – were terrified all the time.

From Forbes ● Oct. 22, 2014

Photograph: Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA The cockiest Lonnie Donegan wannabe in Nottingham tears up the roots of rock'n'roll by making like a Sun Records bluegrass balladeer appealing against an Asbo.

From The Guardian ● Jun. 28, 2013

He cocked up his head, and he cocked up his wings, and he cocked up his tail, and, in short, he looked the cockiest little man of all little men.

From Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 2 by Charles Herbert Sylvester