Also 5 cok come, -cambe, -came, 6 cockome. A later spelling, chiefly in fig. senses is COXCOMB, q.v.
1. The comb or crest of a cock.
c. 1400. Maundev., xix. (1839), 207. White gees … thei han a gret crest as a cokkes comb vpon hire hedes [Fr. vne grosse boce sur la teste].
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 86. Cokkys combe, cirrus.
c. 1450. Nominale, in Wr.-Wülcker, 703/25. Hec crista, cokcome.
1547. Boorde, Introd. Knowl., xxiv. 185. A cap of sylke, the whych stondeth vp lyke a podynge or a cokes come.
1570. Levins, Manip., 161/30. A cockome, crista.
2. A cap worn by a professional fool, like a cock’s-comb in shape and color. See also COXCOMB.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 55. Except ye bring him to weare a cocks comb at ende.
1590. Webbe, Trav. (Arb.), 31. With a fooles coate on my backe, halfe blew, half yellowe, and a cokescombe with three bels on my head.
1602. Marston, Antonio’s Rev., IV. i. G 1 b. Enter Antonio in a fooles habit.… This cockscombe is a crowne Which I affect.
1820. Scott, Ivanhoe, xxvi. Let my cockscomb hang in the hall at Rotherwood, in memory that I flung away my life for my master, like a faithful—fool.
† 3. A ludicrous term for the head: also COXCOMB. Obs.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., III. i. 91. I will knog your Vrinal about your knaues Cogs-combe.
1650. B., Discolliminium, 45. She hath a shrewd Cocks-combe in such businesses.
1654. Gayton, Pleas. Notes, II. vi. 61. Vow not to shave his Beard or powder his Cockscombe.
† 4. A conceited fool; a fop. Now COXCOMB.
1567. Drant, Horace Ep., XVII. F ij. Well giue him cloth, and let the foole goe like a Cockescombe still.
1576. T. Newton, trans. Lemnie’s Complex. (1633), 162. Dolts and Cockscombes.
1706. De Foe, Jure Div., IV. 69. The Light that Error cozens Cock’s-combs by.
5. A name given to various plants. a. The Yellow Rattle (Rhinanthus Crista galli), a common weed in meadows.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, IV. lvi. 516. Yellow Rattel … is called … in base Almaigne … of some Hanekammekens, that is to say, Hennes Commes, or Coxecombes.
1597. Gerarde, Herball (1633), II. ccccxxxvi. 1071.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 275. Cocks-comb, hath leaues for all the world resembling the crest or comb of a cock.
1861. Miss Pratt, Flower. Pl., IV. 109. Yellow Rattle…. The crested bracts procured for it the botanic and common appellation of Cock’s-comb.
b. The florist’s name for Celosia cristata, an amaranthad, grown as an ornamental plant.
1737. Compl. Fam.-Piece, II. iii. 366. You may now transplant some of your … double-striped Balsamines and Cocks-combs.
1794. Martyn, Rousseau’s Bot., xvi. 211. The Crested Amaranth … is commonly called Cock’s comb, from the form in which the head of flowers grows.
1882. Garden, 15 April, 262/1. Balsams … and the old-fashioned Cockscomb.
c. Locally, in Great Britain, Sainfoin. d. Wild Poppy. e. Lousewort. f. Adder’s-tongue; etc. (Britten and Holl.) g. In the West Indies, Erythrina Crista-galli, a handsome papilionaceous shrub.
1713. I. Petiver, Rare Plants, in Phil. Trans., XXVIII. 211. Oriental Cocks-Comb, Onobrychis Orient. cristata.
6. A kind of oyster having both valves plaited. More fully Cockscomb oyster.
1776. Da Costa, Elem. Conchol., 250. The species of this family [oyster] are very numerous; some are curious … as the Cockscombs, &c.
1856. Woodward, Mollusca, 254. In the ‘cock’s-comb’ oysters both valves are plaited.
7. attrib. and Comb., as cockscomb granulation, etc.; cockscomb ash, a variety of the ash with fasciated shoots; cockscomb grass, Cynosurus echinatus (Miller); cockscomb morion, a variety of the morion or open helmet of the 16th c.; cockscomb oyster: see 6; cockscomb pyrites, a variety of Marcasite.
1859. Todd, Cycl. Anat., V. 695/2. Hypertrophies of the crested folds of that membrane, which when everted, enlarged, and inflamed, constitute the condition termed ‘cockscomb granulation.’
1868. Dana, Min., 75. Cockscomb Pyrites, aggregations of flattened crystals into crest-like forms.
1882. Garden, 23 Sept., 272/3. The Cockscomb Ash … has … a large proportion of the shoots curiously fasciated.
