# Correct me if I'm wrong

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/correct-me-if-im-wrong/565600>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [December 28, 2010, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/correct-me-if-im-wrong/565600 "2010-12-28T14:51:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![FrancisCastle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b4bc9f/32.png) [@FrancisCastle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrancisCastle)\
**Post date:** [December 28, 2010, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/correct-me-if-im-wrong/565600/1 "2010-12-28T14:51:20Z")

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I was reading an article about the big storm on Yahoo today and I came across this sentence.

> [@](#):
>
> This storm simply didn’t play fair, **cold-cocking** the Northeast with more than 2 feet of snow on a holiday weekend when everyone seemed to be out of town, groggy with holiday cheer or just unprepared.

I thought the phrase was **cold-clocking**. The way they have it written just looks funny to me (and sassy!).

So which is correct?

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**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\
**Post date:** [December 28, 2010, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/correct-me-if-im-wrong/565600/2 "2010-12-28T14:54:48Z")

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I’ve always seen it as cold-cock; that’s also how [merriam-webster’s](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cold-cock) has it.

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**Author:** ![FrancisCastle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b4bc9f/32.png) [@FrancisCastle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrancisCastle)\
**Post date:** [December 28, 2010, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/correct-me-if-im-wrong/565600/3 "2010-12-28T14:59:19Z")

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Hmmm… I guess I’ve always been wrong then! Oh well, at least I’m smarter now. 🙂  
Thanks.

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**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\
**Post date:** [December 28, 2010, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/correct-me-if-im-wrong/565600/4 "2010-12-28T16:32:27Z")

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If you think about it, it just makes sense. Nobody wants a cold cock…

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**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\
**Post date:** [December 28, 2010, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/correct-me-if-im-wrong/565600/5 "2010-12-28T16:58:04Z")

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I think you’ve just conflated two similar terms: to get [_coldcocked_](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cold-cocked?show=0&t=1293555558) and to get [_clocked_](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/clocked) (meaning 3) can mean similar things.