Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of cocky If the company gets cocky and goes too high, that could ruin a lot of the appeal here. Chris Welch, The Verge, 6 Jan. 2025 The mention of a weapon sets off one officer: Jaime Pino, a 20-year veteran with the cocky manner and imposing presence of a TV cop. Carol Marbin Miller, Miami Herald, 2 Jan. 2025 That this once-relevant scoundrel's fall from something like grace uplifts so many is a testament to the joy to be found in seeing a cocky operator get his overdue comeuppance. Dan Perry, Newsweek, 18 Dec. 2024 What’s a cocky teenage boy to an English teacher in middle life and his rueful wife? Amanda Whiting, Vulture, 18 Oct. 2024 See All Example Sentences for cocky
Recent Examples of Synonyms for cocky
Adjective
  • Plunkett is not the first critic to trouble the popular conception of Frost as a wise woodsman dispensing comfort and inspiration.
    Maggie Doherty, The New Yorker, 24 Feb. 2025
  • The decision to put Kreider in over Kyle Connor, who has 30 goals this year, did not end up looking like a wise one.
    Arthur Staple, The Athletic, 24 Feb. 2025
Adjective
  • No brand should be so cocksure as to presume its products are irreplaceable.
    Cate Rubenstein, Rolling Stone, 11 Jan. 2023
  • Nayeri’s demeanor — usually cocksure — became unhinged.
    Tim Dickinson, Rolling Stone, 17 Dec. 2022
Adjective
  • Parthenope is inscrutable yet expressive, insolent yet heroic, magnetic yet unattainable, loving yet selfish.
    Mike Miller, EW.com, 12 Feb. 2025
  • The officers weren't rude, angry, or insolent — as required of a battery conviction — and used their training and legal authority to do their jobs.
    Ryan Murphy, The Indianapolis Star, 2 Dec. 2024
Adjective
  • The sassy Southern belle was known for her fashion, knack for art history and on-and-off relationship (but eventually very on) with Dwayne Wayne.
    Emily Krauser, People.com, 23 Feb. 2025
  • One of the liveliest genre examples is director Raine Allen-Miller’s sassy London-set, day-long rom-com that doesn’t waste one nano-second of its flinty 82-minute running time.
    Randy Myers, The Mercury News, 13 Feb. 2025
Adjective
  • Bouchard’s uneven season might be enough to scare away some NHL teams, but not all; the brazen work by the St. Louis Blues has worked out well for the team’s general manager (Doug Armstrong).
    Allan Mitchell, The Athletic, 21 Feb. 2025
  • Now identified and charged in the brazen fatal shooting of a health care executive, his influence has persisted, even from behind bars.
    Hurubie Meko, New York Times, 21 Feb. 2025
Adjective
  • More specifically, the impudent Skull Kid steals the Ocarina of Time and turns Link into a Deku Scrub, those antagonistic tree cannons first introduced in Ocarina.
    Ashley Bardhan, Vulture, 27 Sep. 2024
  • In short, Moscow sees Montenegro as both strategically valuable and an impudent upstart that has thumbed its nose at the Russian bear while genuflecting before NATO and Washington.
    Edward P. Joseph, Foreign Affairs, 22 Dec. 2016
Adjective
  • The case for a new general manager is that person would be able to better identify the types of players necessary to round at this roster and have the foresight to take bold and proactive action to make moves happen.
    Matthew Fairburn, The Athletic, 18 Feb. 2025
  • Her makeup included bold brows and a smokey eye with a glossy lip.
    Julia Teti, WWD, 18 Feb. 2025
Adjective
  • Anthony Edwards has garnered a reputation for being among the more brash athletes in professional sports, which was further stamped by footage of the NBA star trash-talking Barack Obama at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
    Preezy Brown, VIBE.com, 19 Feb. 2025
  • President Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, is the congenial dealmaker for the very brash dealmaker-in-chief.
    Axios, Axios, 16 Feb. 2025

Browse Nearby Entries

Cite this Entry

“Cocky.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cocky. Accessed 3 Mar. 2025.

More from Merriam-Webster on cocky

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!