as in wise
displaying or marked by rude boldness
a cocky young actor who thought that he was God's gift to the theater
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Recent Examples of cocky
Thanks to its partnership with Microsoft, resulting in near total control of PC chips throughout the 1990s, Intel got cocky.
—
Tiana Lowe Doescher, The Washington Examiner, 5 Sep. 2025
Still, closers have to be somewhat cocky to succeed in high-pressure situations, and Duran has been excellent on the whole since arriving in Philadelphia.
—Jackson Roberts, MSNBC Newsweek, 27 Aug. 2025
In Bachelorette season 11, Nick crashed the party and once again rubbed the other men (and many viewers) the wrong way in pursuit of Bristowe, whose ultimate pick, Shawn Booth, called him cocky and manipulative to his face.
—Laura Bradley, Vulture, 13 Aug. 2025
Hero Ellen Ripley’s (Sigourney Weaver) lonely fight for survival gave way to a military mission to vanquish aliens ravaging a human colony; Cameron filled the frame with cocky Marines, boxy space tanks, and an adorable orphan who finds in Ripley a surrogate mother.
—Judy Berman, Time, 5 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for cocky
Tiana Lowe Doescher, The Washington Examiner, 5 Sep. 2025
Still, closers have to be somewhat cocky to succeed in high-pressure situations, and Duran has been excellent on the whole since arriving in Philadelphia.
—Jackson Roberts, MSNBC Newsweek, 27 Aug. 2025
In Bachelorette season 11, Nick crashed the party and once again rubbed the other men (and many viewers) the wrong way in pursuit of Bristowe, whose ultimate pick, Shawn Booth, called him cocky and manipulative to his face.
—Laura Bradley, Vulture, 13 Aug. 2025
Hero Ellen Ripley’s (Sigourney Weaver) lonely fight for survival gave way to a military mission to vanquish aliens ravaging a human colony; Cameron filled the frame with cocky Marines, boxy space tanks, and an adorable orphan who finds in Ripley a surrogate mother.
—Judy Berman, Time, 5 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for cocky
Recent Examples of Synonyms for cocky
Adjective
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There are many layers that get peeled back in this wise film.—
Randy Myers,
Mercury News,
30 Sep. 2025
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That won’t be the case every week, but Diggs looks up to speed — healthy and chemistry-wise — which puts him in the WR3/4 conversation and gives that Boutte the boot.—
Jake Ciely,
New York Times,
30 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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That included a skinny, brash, cocksure right-hander named Walker Buehler, who went from a first-round pick to assuming the mantle as the next one poised to break through.—
Fabian Ardaya,
New York Times,
22 Sep. 2025
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Set on a white-run construction site in West Africa, the story follows an edgy foreman anxiously awaiting his bride, whose presence meets resistance from a cocksure engineer clinging to the hyper-masculine status quo.—
Naman Ramachandran,
Variety,
4 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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Beautiful, not perfect; Alex can be rude, insolent, and subject to wild emotional swings and failures of decorum and logic.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
14 Aug. 2025
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The movie’s startling originality is in its spirit, its insolent ironies.—
Richard Brody,
New Yorker,
30 July 2025
Adjective
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Get those sassy, embellished one-pieces on!—
Ali Barthwell,
Vulture,
25 Sep. 2025
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Bruno agreed, calling her sassy, sexy, yet classy.—
Monica Mercuri,
Forbes.com,
17 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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Advertisement Last week’s brazen Israeli airstrikes against Hamas negotiators in Doha turbocharged those anxieties.—
Firas Maksad,
Time,
25 Sep. 2025
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Read All About It A Missouri woman was sentenced to more than four years in prison in a brazen and blundering attempt to steal Graceland from the family of Elvis Presley.—
Christian Orozco,
NBC news,
24 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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Gemma reluctantly agrees to rebuild her impudent robot in a new body, and the sequel ends with an explosive showdown between Amelia and M3GAN, who nearly dies in a noble attempt to save Gemma and her niece, Cady (Violet McGraw).—
Patrick Ryan,
USA Today,
29 June 2025
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Fortunately, Snow White’s newfound enlightenment does not deny her the possibility of romance, although princes are now strictly off-limits; her love interest here is a fetchingly impudent bandit, Jonathan (Andrew Burnap), who is leading a scrappy rebellion against the Evil Queen.—
Justin Chang,
The New Yorker,
22 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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The Europeans have hit them with bold shotmaking, clutch putting and an urgency and intensity that have blown the host team out of this outsize ballpark.—
Ian O'Connor,
New York Times,
28 Sep. 2025
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In 2022, the eclectic corner café Black Coffee lit up Detroit’s North End neighborhood with its bold yellow walls and Afrocentric décor.—
Lyndsay C. Green,
Freep.com,
28 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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With straight-forward fits and washes, Burberry and Gucci cleansed the palette for bolder and brasher Spring/Summer 2026 designs by labels like Harri, Natasha Zinko and Yaku.—
Angela Velasquez,
Sourcing Journal,
29 Sep. 2025
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Emmy nominee Sabrina Impacciatore, who plays Esmeralda Grand, the brash (and hilarious) managing editor of the Toledo Truth Teller, will vie for awards consideration for the upcoming fall ceremonies, and the 2026 Emmys, in the lead actress comedy categories, revealed to Variety exclusively.—
Clayton Davis,
Variety,
29 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Cocky.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cocky. Accessed 2 Oct. 2025.
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