Definition of Go off half-cocked

1. Verb. Act prematurely or without reflection or too soon. "She wanted to quit her job but her mother told her not to go off half-cocked"

Exact synonyms: Go Off At Half-cock
Generic synonyms: Act, Move

Definition of Go off half-cocked

1. Verb. (idiomatic colloquial): To take a premature or ill-considered action. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Lexicographical Neighbors of Go Off Half-cocked

go in with
go into
go into one's shells
go it alone
go jump in the lake
go kaflooey
go large
go mad
go moggy
go native
go nowhere
go nuts
go off
go off at half-cock
go off at score
go off half-cocked (current term)
go off into the weeds
go off on one
go off the boil
go off the reservation
go on
go out
go out like a light
go out of one's way
go out on a limb
go out the window
go over
go over like a lead balloon
go over someone's head
go overboard

Literary usage of Go off half-cocked

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association by American Veterinary Medical Association. (1917)
"... regular physician now—he is likely to go off half-cocked, and say "This is your ailment", writes a little prescription, sends you to the drag store. ..."

2. Iowa Journal of History by State Historical Society of Iowa (1919)
"Your committee did not desire to "go off half-cocked," on the grave questions before them; and here permit the committee to remark that the report that your ..."

3. The Knickerbocker: Or, New-York Monthly Magazine by Charles Fenno Hoffman, Timothy Flint, Lewis Gaylord Clark, Kinahan Cornwallis, John Holmes Agnew (1847)
"... fly into a passion and go off half-cocked ; none of these flash men, all ruffle and no shirt, find a place at the last scenes of the Athenian banquet. ..."

4. Library of Literary Criticism of English and American Authors by Charles Wells Moulton (1910)
"“I hate to go off half-cocked,” was the very characteristic remark in the course of some conversation on the Philippine question. . . . Prof. ..."

5. Queed: A Novel by Henry Sydnor Harrison (1911)
""Take a man like you, with fine high ideas and all, and let anything come up and pass itself off f'ra maw'l question and he'll go off half-cocked ten times ..."

6. A History of New-York: From the Beginning of the World to the End of the by Washington Irving (1860)
"... wary housewife does at a gun, fearful it may go off half-cocked. The document in question had a sinister look, it is true; it wus crabbed in text, ..."

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