a gesture of defiance, disrespect, or derision. Idioms. 2. cock a / one's snook, to thumb the nose: a painter who cocks a snook at traditional techniques.
Effect on the Civil War. The importance of the Emancipation Proclamation is that it altered the cause and reasons for the Civil War. At the onset, it was about the Unionâs attempt to bring the Confederates back into the fold. With the proclamation, things changed.
- Proclamation had a symbolic importance & changed nature of war... Gov't committed itself to freeing slaves... Blacks could be accepted as soldiers - The Emancipation Proclamation became the North's symbolic call for human freedom