Only partially prepared or thought through; acting impulsively or without proper planning; also describes a firearm with the hammer in the halfway position.
From 'half-cock' (the mechanical position of a gun's hammer), extended metaphorically to describe any action undertaken without full preparation or thought.
When English speakers borrowed the gun-hammer metaphor 'halfcocked' to describe hasty plans, it perfectly captured the modern feeling of half-baked projects and impulsive decisions—the phrase is way more common than most people realize.
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