Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A pouch or flap hiding an opening in the front of the tight breeches worn by men in the 15th and 16th centuries.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In carriage-trimming, a half-circle at the lower front corner of a carriage top cast solid with the side-quarter or sewed on: used to cover slat-irons and prop-post.
- noun In medieval male costume, a part of the hose in front, at the separation of the legs, made loose or in the form of a flap, or in some cases separately attached: it was rendered necessary by the extreme tightness of the garment from about 1475 to 1550.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A part of male dress in front of the breeches, formerly made very conspicuous.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A part of
male dress in front of thebreeches to cover the male genitals, sometimes made veryconspicuous in former times. - noun A conspicuous protection for the male
genitals in a suit ofplate armor .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun (15th-16th century) a flap for the crotch of men's tight-fitting breeches
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Och, "the figure added, in a different tone," and did you know as your codpiece are open? "
Villains by Necessity Forward, Eve 1995
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I've also heard he had a cuttlefish in his codpiece, which is likely where that cod-fishing rumor came from...he was trying to correct the fit!
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Will you maintain, quoth Pantagruel, that the codpiece is the chief piece of a military harness?
Five books of the lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel 2002
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For the codpiece is the principal and most especial piece of armour that a warrior doth carry; and therefore do I maintain even to the fire (exclusively, understand you me), that no Turks can properly be said to be armed men, in regard that codpieces are by their law forbidden to be worn.
Five books of the lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel 2002
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Will you maintain, quoth Pantagruel, that the codpiece is the chief piece of a military harness?
Five books of the lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel 2002
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For the codpiece is the principal and most especial piece of armour that a warrior doth carry; and therefore do I maintain even to the fire (exclusively, understand you me), that no Turks can properly be said to be armed men, in regard that codpieces are by their law forbidden to be worn.
Five books of the lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel 2002
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He praises many un praiseworthy things besides debt: his praise of the codpiece is a considered essay on generation, as well as an ironic commentary on that segment of a man's trousers.
LITERARY PARADOX ROSALIE L. COLIE 1968
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Will you maintain, quoth Pantagruel, that the codpiece is the chief piece of a military harness?
Gargantua and Pantagruel, Illustrated, Book 3 Fran��ois Rabelais 1518
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For the codpiece is the principal and most especial piece of armour that a warrior doth carry; and therefore do I maintain even to the fire (exclusively, understand you me), that no Turks can properly be said to be armed men, in regard that codpieces are by their law forbidden to be worn.
Gargantua and Pantagruel, Illustrated, Book 3 Fran��ois Rabelais 1518
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I played Iago's codpiece in Othello, and I gave my Bottom nightly for two months - and it was very well-received, I might add - in a production of Midsummer Night's Dream.
Archive 2009-06-01 Dungeekin 2009
brtom commented on the word codpiece
Enter Magee Mor Matthew, a rugged rough rugheaded kern, in strossers with a buttoned codpiece, his nether stocks bemired with clauber of ten forests, a wand of wilding in his hand.
Joyce, Ulysses, 9
January 6, 2007
chained_bear commented on the word codpiece
"... but that kind of subtlety isn't Snyder's strong suit, which is obvious the first time we see Dr. Manhattan wander across the screen in the nude, with his giant blue junk flapping in the apocalyptic breeze—another misguided sop to the novel and its R-rated sensibility. Apparently, loyalty means never having to say, 'For God's sake, put on a codpiece.'"
—Devin Gordon, "Till Death Do Us Part," Newsweek (March 9, 2009), 61
March 13, 2009
chained_bear commented on the word codpiece
P.S. How timely.
March 13, 2009
bilby commented on the word codpiece
Speaking of timely, I just checked the BBC news headlines and the top one was 'Junk alert for space station crew'.
March 13, 2009