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
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
But by some force of alchemy, his cockeyed look at things—a mix of deadpan delivery, garish colors, and exaggerated interactions—is weirdly perfect for this adaptation.
—Jordan Hoffman, EW.com, 2 Apr. 2025
Photograph by Julie Lemberger For more than forty years, the choreographer Sally Silvers has been offering audiences her cockeyed, defamiliarizing ideas of what dance can be.
—Helen Shaw, The New Yorker, 14 Mar. 2025
Rather, its orbit is slightly cockeyed, tilted at an angle of 5.145 degrees.
—Jeffrey Kluger, TIME, 11 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for cockeyed
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Mike Lupica, New York Daily News, 3 Apr. 2025
But by some force of alchemy, his cockeyed look at things—a mix of deadpan delivery, garish colors, and exaggerated interactions—is weirdly perfect for this adaptation.
—Jordan Hoffman, EW.com, 2 Apr. 2025
Photograph by Julie Lemberger For more than forty years, the choreographer Sally Silvers has been offering audiences her cockeyed, defamiliarizing ideas of what dance can be.
—Helen Shaw, The New Yorker, 14 Mar. 2025
Rather, its orbit is slightly cockeyed, tilted at an angle of 5.145 degrees.
—Jeffrey Kluger, TIME, 11 Mar. 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 28 May. 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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