Brewer's: Cockshy

(A ). A free fling or “shy” at something. The allusion is to the once popular Shrove-Tuesday sport of shying or casting stones or sticks at cocks. This sport is now superseded by pigeon-shooting, which is thought to be more aristocratic! but can hardly be deemed more humane.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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