McCoy

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Mc·Coy

(mə-koi′)

n. Informal

The authentic thing or quality; something that is not an imitation or substitute: This gem is the real McCoy.

[Alteration of earlier McKay, probably from Scots, good unadulterated whiskey.]

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.

McCoy

(məˈkɔɪ)

slang the genuine person or thing (esp in the phrase the real McCoy)

[C20: perhaps after Kid McCoy, professional name of Norman Selby (1873–1940), American boxer, who was called "the real McCoy'"to distinguish him from another boxer of that name]

McCoy

(məˈkɔɪ)

(Biography) Tony, full name Anthony Peter McCoy. born 1974, Northern Irish national hunt jockey: champion jockey every season since 1995/96

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

Mc•Coy

(məˈkɔɪ)

n.

the genuine thing or person as promised, stated, or implied (usu. in the phrase the real McCoy).

[1880–85; also Mackay, McKie, the clear McCoy (of liquor); of uncertain orig.]

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McCoy

noun

the real McCoy real thing, genuine article This isn't just sparkling wine, it's the real McCoy.

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

Translations

McCoy

[məˈkɔɪ] (fam) this is the real McCoy! → questo è quello originale!

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

References in classic literature ?

"My name is McCoy," came the answer in tones that breathed tenderness and compassion.

McCoy passed the benediction of his gaze over the tall, heavy-shouldered man with the haggard, unshaven face who had joined the captain.

"I am as much a pilot as anybody," was McCoy's answer.

Both he and the captain regarded McCoy with incredulity and amazement.

"Any relation to the McCoy of the Bounty?" the captain asked.

"Then you made a mistake, Captain, said McCoy. "You should have slacked away for Mangareva.

"Yes, that is what fetched you to leeward," McCoy went on.

McCoy found a stifling, poisonous atmosphere in the pent cabin.

"It's hot!" McCoy cried involuntarily, mopping his face with a bandana handkerchief.

The captain could not control them, but McCoy's gentle presence seemed to rebuke and calm them, and the muttering and cursing died away, until the full crew, save here and there an anxious face directed at the captain, yearned dumbly toward the green clad peaks and beetling coast of Pitcairn.

"You see," the captain said to McCoy, "you can't compel sailors to leave the safe land and go to sea on a burning vessel.

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On the way, he had raided the little islet of Ugi, sacked the store, and taken the head of the solitary trader, a gentle-souled half- caste from Norfolk Island who traced back directly to a Pitcairn ancestry straight from the loins of McCoy of the Bounty.