cock·a·ma·mie

also cock·a·ma·my (kŏk′ə-mā′mē)

adj. Slang

1. Trifling; nearly valueless.

2. Ludicrous; nonsensical: gave me a cockamamie reason for not going.

[Probably alteration of decalcomania.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

cockamamie

(ˌkɒkəˈmeɪmɪ) or

cockamamy

adj

slang chiefly US ridiculous or nonsensical: a cockamamie story.

[C20: in an earlier sense: a paper transfer, prob. a variant of decalcomania]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

cock•a•ma•mie

or cock•a•ma•my

(ˈkɒk əˌmeɪ mi)

adj. Slang.

ridiculous; nonsensical: cockamamie ideas.

[1940–45, Amer.; alter. of decalcomania]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Adj.

cockamamie - ludicrous, foolish; "gave me a cockamamie reason for not going"; "wore a goofy hat"; "a silly idea"; "some wacky plan for selling more books"

cockamamy, goofy, sappy, silly, wacky, whacky, zany

colloquialism - a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech

foolish - devoid of good sense or judgment; "foolish remarks"; "a foolish decision"

Translations

cockamamie

cockamamy [ˌkɒkəˈmeɪmɪ] ADJ (US) → que no tiene ni pies ni cabeza

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

cockamamie

adj (US inf: = poor quality) → mies (inf)

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

Mentioned in

References in periodicals archive

You would have to have been the denizen of the fantasy world of Alice in Wonderland to believe that a cockamamie idea like the Peace to Prosperity Conference held in Bahrain this week -- the brainchild of US President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, whose ethereal goal for the conference, we were told, was to, well, turn Gaza into another bustling Singapore and the West Bank into a mirror image of an ebullient San Bernardino Valley -- ever had a chance of being taken seriously, even by the American Secretary of State, who had two weeks ago called it "unexecutable".

Historical momentum trumps economic peace in Palestine

This remained true even among children who had risk factors for autism, such as a sibling with autism or an older father." Anyone with cockamamie reasons to flout established science will still do so.

Vaccinate Children Against Measles

Reacting to one of her cockamamie theories, progressive journalist Glenn Greenwald tweeted, "She is Glenn Beck standing at the chalkboard.

Left Behind: Will Trump derangement cause Democrats to completely abandon antiwar principles?

What kind of mental process does that - construct an entirely make-believe scenario about one of those defining moments in a young person's life, and then cling to that cockamamie yarn, wholly unembarrassed, in the face of facts?

#Imeekwento

Nor will one of those cockamamie veterans committees if Tom Ricketts ever is on the panel like Jerry Reinsdorf has been.

Rivera should be a shoo-in, Martinez gets final shot for Cooperstown

Effectively, the argument is that Nawaz's over-reliance on Dar because of familial relations allowed Dar's cockamamie economic theories to go unchallenged.

The road to nowhere

Meanwhile, some Uber employees who won't wait for an initial public offering are selling their shares at $33, which is a monumental discount to Uber's cockamamie $120 billion valuation.

OP-ED: One company with uber-value and one with room to grow

The country exhibits large current account deficits (reliant upon external capital), large trade deficits (imports exceed exports), a large amount of corporate debt denominated in foreign currencies, enormous external debts (large foreign holdings of a country's debt make it more vulnerable to shocks), a rapidly declining currency, well-above-peer inflation, cockamamie monetary policy and few true allies.

Capital Perspectives: Crisis in Turkey

It is one of the reasons that we now have the cockamamie deals where young artists sign with a record label, and the record label takes half of their publishing and half of their merchandise sales - because that is the only way that they can make any money.

Every day is a winding road for Sheryl on tour; It is 25 years since singer Sheryl Crow released her debut long player. Since then she has shifted 50 million albums. The 56-year-old talks to Kevin Cooper

As for Bolton, if he's still talking about the Libyan example or some other cockamamie formulation, fine.

So much for Libyan example