1
: turned or tilted to one side : askew
a cockeyed hat
He had brown curly hair, and a little cockeyed grin that made girls and women smile back.—
Tracy Kidder
Tracy KidderIn the narrow streets between are steep-roofed Renaissance houses with sculpted beams, cockeyed walls, and old wells.—R. W. Apple, Jr.
R. W. Apple, Jr.2
: somewhat confusing, foolish, absurd, or impractical
a cockeyed scheme/idea
Call me a peacenik, a cockeyed optimist, a technology fanboy—I've been called worse—but I see the opportunity in engaging, in negotiating, and in connecting these cultures …—Jeff Jarvis
Jeff JarvisA mondegreen is a cockeyed new word or phrase resulting from mishearing a proper word or phrase …—Rudolph Chelminski
Rudolph Chelminski
also
: in utter confusion or disorder : topsy-turvy
Bruce Catton called it "a startling novel about the horrible things that can happen to a man in the cockeyed postwar world of Europe … a world gone mad." —John Anthony West
John Anthony West 3
: having a cockeye
4
: drunk sense 1a
… gets wonderfully cockeyed in the neighborhood bar with her old friends.—Jane Cobb
Jane CobbExamples of cockeyed in a Sentence
The windows of the house look cockeyed.
Where did you get those cockeyed ideas?
She is full of cockeyed optimism.
Recent Examples on the Web
The cockeyed squid has also developed a pigment in their lenses that causes a shift in light wavelengths and how they're detected, Robison explains.
—Sean Mowbray, Discover Magazine, 12 June 2025
The father, Buddy Smart (Bryan Cranston), is the clan’s second-rate crackpot visionary, a cockeyed optimist who dresses in fuddy-duddy jackets and never knows where the next paycheck is coming from.
—Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 11 June 2025
The movie oscillates between forms—a dramatization of therapy, a cockeyed meditation on family, a two-hour sitcom—as if searching for a new creative frequency.
—Katy Waldman, New Yorker, 24 May 2025
And, despite whatever combination of reasons and excuses and injured players can be factored into the whole grand cockeyed scheme of things, here is the bottom line on those six games: The Knicks have lost three to the Cavaliers by a total of 62 points.
—Mike Lupica, New York Daily News, 3 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for cockeyed
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Sean Mowbray, Discover Magazine, 12 June 2025
The father, Buddy Smart (Bryan Cranston), is the clan’s second-rate crackpot visionary, a cockeyed optimist who dresses in fuddy-duddy jackets and never knows where the next paycheck is coming from.
—Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 11 June 2025
The movie oscillates between forms—a dramatization of therapy, a cockeyed meditation on family, a two-hour sitcom—as if searching for a new creative frequency.
—Katy Waldman, New Yorker, 24 May 2025
And, despite whatever combination of reasons and excuses and injured players can be factored into the whole grand cockeyed scheme of things, here is the bottom line on those six games: The Knicks have lost three to the Cavaliers by a total of 62 points.
—Mike Lupica, New York Daily News, 3 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for cockeyed
Cite this Entry
“Cockeyed.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cockeyed. Accessed 12 Jul. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
cockeyed
adjective
cock·eyed
ˈkäk-ˈīd 
1
: having a squinting eye
2
: turned or tilted to one side
3
: somewhat confusing, foolish, absurd, or impractical
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