COCK-UPS Synonyms: 40 Similar and Opposite Words

cock-ups

noun

plural of cock-up, British

as in shambles

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Recent Examples of Synonyms for cock-ups

Noun

During last week's WWE SmackDown, a series of mistakes and botches drew harsh criticism from fans.

— Matthew Couden, MSNBC Newsweek, 30 Sep. 2025

Definition of botches

Noun

Andrew Schaefer, a forty-two-year-old father in Orlando, Florida, who helps people out of tax messes, also likes to wager on elections.

— Charles Bethea, New Yorker, 7 Nov. 2026
Instead of bright or pure white finishes, creamy tones are more forgiving against scuffs, fingerprints, smudges, and everyday kitchen messes.

— Timothy Dale, The Spruce, 3 Nov. 2026

Definition of messes

Noun

At the same time, as the extreme heat and wildfires this year showed us, climate disasters are taking lives and inflicting economic losses on a scale that governments can no longer afford to ignore.

— Laurence Tubiana, Time, 6 Nov. 2026
Their power persisted despite proliferating school shootings, the devastating failures of the state’s electrical grid, the preventable deaths of pregnant women, and other scandals, disasters, and tragedies.

— Rachel Monroe, New Yorker, 4 Nov. 2026

Definition of disasters

Noun

Contained within all these fiascoes is a subtly different conservative movement.

— Benjamin Wallace-Wells, New Yorker, 26 Apr. 2026
Trump is the most corrupt and scandal-plagued president since Nixon; indeed, his fiascoes eclipse Nixon’s, but many of them remain mostly or somewhat hidden, thanks in part to a much more acquiescent Republican Congress than the one Nixon had.

— David A. Graham, The Atlantic, 8 Apr. 2026

Definition of fiascoes

Noun

Since Benson and her co-authors met in Oviedo, weather catastrophes have multiplied, oceans have acidified and the amount of carbon in the atmosphere has soared.

— Katie Worth, ProPublica, 30 Oct. 2026
With that in mind, here’s a look at three new books shaped by catastrophes large and small.

— Lisa Henricksson, Air Mail, 17 Oct. 2026

Definition of catastrophes

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cock-up

cock-ups

cocky

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“Cock-ups.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cock-ups. Accessed 13 Nov. 2026.

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Synonyms of cock-ups

noun

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