Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A cone-shaped pile of straw or hay.
- transitive verb To arrange (straw or hay) into piles shaped like cones.
- noun An adult male chicken; a rooster.
- noun An adult male of various other birds.
- noun A weathervane shaped like a rooster; a weathercock.
- noun A faucet or valve by which the flow of a liquid or gas can be regulated.
- noun The hammer of a firearm.
- noun The position of the hammer of a firearm when ready for firing.
- noun A tilting or jaunty turn upward.
- noun The penis.
- noun A man or boy regarded as mean or contemptible.
- noun Archaic The characteristic cry of a rooster early in the morning.
- transitive verb To set the hammer of (a firearm) in a position ready for firing.
- transitive verb To set (a device, such as a camera shutter) in a position ready for use.
- transitive verb To tilt or turn up or to one side, usually in a jaunty or alert manner.
- transitive verb To raise in preparation to throw or hit.
- idiom (cock of the walk) An overbearing or domineering person.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A small conical pile of hay, so shaped for shedding rain; a haycock.
- The act of turning up or to one side in a jaunty or significant way, as the head or a hat; the position of anything thus placed.
- A particular shape given to a hat, especially by turning up and fastening the brim.
- One of the flaps or parts of a hat turned up. See
flap . - noun A nock or notch, especially that in the butt-end of an arrow, or on the stock of a crossbow, which receives or retains the string.
- To fight; contend.
- To turn up or to one side in a jaunty or significant way; give a pert, knowing, or inquiring turn to: as, to
cock the head; to cock the eye at a person; to cock the brim of a hat; the horse cocked up his ears. - To hold up the head; look big, pert, or domineering.
- noun A cockle.
- noun Scarlet.
- noun The male of the domestic fowl; specifically, a male chicken one year old or older, one less than a year old being properly called a cockerel.
- noun The male of any other bird, particularly of the gallinaceous kind: in this use especially in composition, as in peacock, turkey-cock, cockrobin, cock-sparrow, etc.
- noun A bird, particularly a gallinaceous bird, without reference to sex: usually in composition or with a distinctive epithet or qualifying phrase, as in blackcock, logcock, woodcock, and the phrasal names below.
- noun Cock-crowing; the time when cocks crow in the morning.
- noun A leader; a chief person; a ruling spirit: as, cock of the school.
- noun A fellow; chap: a familiar term of address or appellation, usually preceded by old, and used much in the same way as fellow, chap, boy, etc.
- noun A vane in the shape of a cock; a weather-cock.
- noun A faucet or turn-valve, contrived for the purpose of permitting or arresting the flow of fluids or air through a pipe, usually taking its special name from its peculiar use or construction: as, air-cock, feed-cock, gage-cock, etc.
- noun The portion of the lock of a firearm which by its fall, when released through the action of the trigger, produces the discharge; in a flint-lock, the part that holds the flint; in a percussion-lock, the hammer.
- noun In a firearm, the position into which the hammer is brought by being pulled back to the first or second catch. See at full cock, at half cock, below.
- noun The style or gnomon of a dial.
- noun The needle of a balance.
- noun The piece which forms the bearing of the balance in a clock or watch.
- noun Same as
cockee . - noun A fictitious narrative, in verse or prose, sold in the streets as a true account; a cock-and-bull story; a canard.
- noun Fight.
- In hay-making, to put into cocks or piles.
- noun A small boat; a cockboat; a skiff.
- To pamper; cocker.
- noun A perversion of or substitution for the word God, occurring in oaths, such as “(By) cock's body” (bones, wounds, nouns, etc.), “by cock and pye,” etc. Compare
gog in similar use.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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And the word cock is a halfway dirty word; fifty percent dirty, dirty half the time, depending on what you mean by it.
Last Words George Carlin 2009
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If all you are thinking about is sex (as the term cock block would imply) then that is disrespectful.
[Help] Most Recent Posts marshmadg782 2010
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He had always laughed at what he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon himself.
Sole Music 2010
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He had always laughed at what he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon himself.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir, 1859-1930 1950
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To me he was an upper-form demi-god and I, seeing nothing odd in his actions, for he was what I called the cock of the school, voiced my trembling plea.
Margarita's Soul The Romantic Recollections of a Man of Fifty Josephine Dodge Daskam Bacon 1918
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'I don't know, sir,' she began quietly, 'by what right you speak to me about what you call my cock-and-bull stories.
The Return Walter De la Mare 1914
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He had always laughed at what he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon himself.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Arthur Conan Doyle 1894
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He had always laughed at what he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon himself.
The Five Orange Pips 1891
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Use any slang acceptable in a group and the term cock stopper is right in this context.
[Help] Most Recent Posts marshmadg782 2010
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"I just went into Google and typed in 'cock' and 'boobs' and stuff," recalled one lad of his early online interests.
Shag bands, porn on mobile phones … kids need more help to understand sex Miranda Sawyer 2010
chained_bear commented on the word cock
Usage in Newfoundland English:
"I am hiking on the cliffside trail on Signal Hill -- the granite sentinel that watches over the city's harbor entrance -- when 60-mph gusts nearly lift me off my feet. I drop to the ground, wedging against boulders for security. Howling headwinds scour my face like sandpaper. Suddenly a jogger runs by. He is holding tightly onto his ballooning shorts, which have half flown off. He grins at me, "How's she cutting, me cock?" Excuse me?
Newfoundland English, as I am rapidly discovering, is a tongue-twisting, colorful blend of Irish and English dialects and sea-lore expressions. The language, which developed as a result of Newfoundland's history as one of Britain's first settlements in the New World as well as its geographical isolation, even boasts a dictionary of more than 700 pages..." --Paula Stone, "A Trip Off the Old Rock," Washington Post, Sunday, April 22, 2007; Page P01.
"...which I own, because I got it for Christmas." --chained_bear
I still don't know what "how's she cutting, me cock?" means, but someday I hope to find out.
January 5, 2008
yarb commented on the word cock
It's not that unusual to hear this usage in parts of the UK. I've known cockneys and scousers who've been liable to greet a man with "how are you, me old cock?" or "aye aye, cocker!"
January 5, 2008
reesetee commented on the word cock
Sounds like a term of endearment, no?
January 7, 2008
yarb commented on the word cock
Yeah, that's what I took it to be. Similar to mate or pal. The etymology is beyond me but I'm certain it has nothing to do with male genitalia. That said, I've never heard it used by or to a woman (although Paula Stone proves things are different in Newfoundland).
'How's she cutting' - could that be of nautical origin?
January 8, 2008
reesetee commented on the word cock
I wouldn't be surprised if it were nautical, yarb, considering that it's used in Newfoundland. But after a bit of poking around, I found that it's also used in Ireland and that some suspect it's an old farming phrase. Anyone know for sure?
January 8, 2008
sionnach commented on the word cock
I've heard it used as a term of endearment in Ireland, though I think it would generally be preceded by an adjective, most likely 'old' or 'oul'.
As expected, Terence Patrick Dolan's ridonkulous "Dictionary of Hiberno-English" is of no help at all, disallowing the possibility that cock may be used as a noun.
January 8, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word cock
reesetee, are you talking about the "how's she cutting" part, or the "old cock" part?
I'm sure in this usage that "cock" is an endearment not unlike the terms yarb and sionnach mentioned as in use in Ireland. I'd also like to know what "how's she cutting" means though.
I could see it being nautical OR agricultural in origin. Hmm.
January 8, 2008
reesetee commented on the word cock
I was responding to yarb's "how's she cutting" question about whether that part of the whole phrase could be nautical, but earlier I was asking whether "cock" were in this case a term of endearment. Yeesh, this is getting confusing. :-)
January 8, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word cock
I just got a memo at work that contains the following:
"Pull slightly on the cock to ensure you have the strength to operate that particular musket. The pull required varies between muskets and you should not take out a musket to shoot unless you can operate the cock easily and safely."
Wow.
July 10, 2008
strev commented on the word cock
"How's it hanging, buddy?" is what he asked of ye.
(aka "how are you doing?")
This was not a double entendre, but merely a statement to which an answer was not mandatory).
April 14, 2009
sionnach commented on the word cock
From "Dictionary of Lowland Scotch" by Charles Mackay
Cock.
This syllable, which enters into the composition of many words and phrases both in Lowland Scotch and modern English, has generally been associated with its supposed derivation from cock, the name given to the male of birds, and especially to the familiar gallinaceous barn-door fowl that "crows in the morning." Its true derivation, however, is from the Gaelic coc, which means to elevate, to erect, to stand up, to throw high, to lift, as in such phrases as a "cocked-hat," a "cockade," "cock up your beaver," " cock-sure" (manifestly or presumedly sure, or pretending to be so), " cock-a-hoop," and many others. It is more common in Lowland Scotch than in English. To cock, signifies to mount one boy on the back of another for punishment on the posteriors ; to cock-shy, to throw a stone or other missile high in the air; cock-a-penny or cock-a-pentie, to live beyond one's income for pride or ostentation, or the disinclination to appear as poor as one is in reality by expending more pennies than one has honestly got; cockie-vain, conceited, arrogant, stuck up ; cockie-ridie, a game among children, when one rides on the shoulders of another; a cockhorse, a wooden horse, on which children mount for amusement; cock-laird, a small landed proprietor, who affects the dignity and gives himself the airs of a great one ; cock-headed or cockle- headed, vain, conceited, whimsical, stuck up; cockernonie (which see); cock-raw, manifestly or plainly raw, underdone ; cock- up nose, a turned-up nose, " tiptilted," as Lord Tennyson more elegantly describes it, and cockeye, a squint-eye, that cocks up or awry when it should look straight.
None of these words have any connection with the male bird of the Gallinaceae, but all are traceable etymologically to the Gaelic root of coc. Philologists, if so disposed, may trace to this same source the vulgar and indecent English and Scottish words which may be found in Juvenal and Horace as Mentula.
April 24, 2009
bilby commented on the word cock
I was addressed as cock by a stranger yesterday and it struck me as odd. However, in the hallowed (and lengthy) halls of definitions up above there's this:
'n. informal, British, Tasmania An informal term of address.'
So there you have it. I've had old cock from friends but this was the first time I've heard this Tasmanianism. The exchange happened when we were in the checkout queue at a supermarket. The other gentleman, probably around 30 years of age and working class (assuming paint splattered day-glo workwear is not a fashion preference), seemed to be indicating I could move ahead of him at his pleasure.
Punter: Go on cock, you've got bugger all, you're right.
Me: No.
January 6, 2013