half-cock
Going off at half-cock means doing something in a rushed, poorly prepared, or half-hearted way — like charging into a situation before you've thought it through.
Definitions
Going off at half-cock means doing something in a rushed, poorly prepared, or half-hearted way — like charging into a situation before you've thought it through. In British English it's a classic phrase for plans that flop because someone skipped the preparation. It also describes someone who commits to something but never quite goes all in. If your project launch bombed because nobody tested anything, that's textbook half-cock territory.
They went off at half-cock with the product launch — no beta testers, no PR plan, just vibes.
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(UK) Not with full vigour, half-heartedly.
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🇬🇧About British & Irish slang slang
UK and Irish slang — Cockney, Scouse, Geordie, Yorkshire, Glaswegian, Brummie, Welsh, West Country, plus Irish English. Centuries of regional dialects feeding into modern British and Irish street talk.
See all British & Irish slang slang on Slangora.
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(slang, somewhat, vulgar, transitive) To perform a task incompletely or carelessly.
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(Singapore, Singlish, vulgar) ; done without care or seriousness.
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(slang, vulgar) or incompetently done; desultory.
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(slang, somewhat, vulgar) Produced in an incompetent or desultory manner, or of something lacking in quality or substance; of low rank; incompetent.