cockamamie
adjective
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L335403 on Wikidata ↗Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˌkɒk.əˈmeɪ.mi/ / /ˌkɑ.kəˈmeɪ.mi/ / /ˌkɔk.əˈmæɪ.mi/
adj
Etymology: Possible corruption of French décalcomanie (“process of transferring designs onto surfaces using decals”); sometimes erroneously claimed to derive from Yiddish.
- Foolish, ill-considered, silly, unbelievable.
“Do not give any more cockamamie reasons for failing to complete your assignment.”
“Anyone arguing against even the most cockamamie idea, so long as that idea is supposed to benefit conservation, is viewed with suspicion, at best.”
- Trifling.
noun
Etymology: Possible corruption of French décalcomanie (“process of transferring designs onto surfaces using decals”); sometimes erroneously claimed to derive from Yiddish.
- A decal, a design that can be transferred to a surface.
““If it wuz a nickel,” said one broody voice between the gratings, “I could buy fuh two cends cockamamies an’ pud em on mine hull arm. An’ den fuh t’ree cends I’ll go to duh movies.” “Yuh c’n buy fuh t’ree cends cockamamies.” Izzy crisply revised the dream.”
“As a youngster in The Bronx in the early 1930s, I would occasionally take my windfall of a few pennies to the local candy store and buy a strip of cockamamies, ‘comic-style cartoons in brilliant colors, each about an inch by an inch and a half, transferable to forearm or forehead by wetting’, preferably with saliva to make things agreeably messy.”
- A foolish or ridiculous person.
““What’s going down here, you cockamamies, we’re releasing two pictures this week about goddamn rich guys who get involved with their goddamn black tenants? What is this, an April Fool’s memo?””
- Ridiculousness; folly; foolish nonsense.
“Most of his ideas were pure cockamamie. One of them, however, was a real beaut.”
“Among the items related to Liveliness, "Feel that I have a lot of inner strength" is positively keyed, making it an extroverted quality. Really? That's just cockamamie. What does inner strength have to do with introversion or extroversion?”