Obs. or dial. Also -shoot(e, -shot. [f. COCK sb.1 + SHUT: perh. the time when poultry go to rest and are shut up; though some think it is = COCKSHOOT, and refers to the time when wood-cocks ‘shoot’ or fly.]
1. attrib. in cock-shut light, time, etc.: twilight.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., V. iii. 70. Thomas the Earle of Surrey, and himselfe, Much about Cockshut time … Went through the Army, chearing vp the Souldiers.
1603. B. Jonson, Satyr. For you would not yesternight Kiss him in the cock-shut light.
c. 1610. Middleton, etc. Widow, III. i. Come, come away, then; a fine cock-shoot evening.
1611. Cotgr., Brune, the euening twylight, or edge of the euening; cockshoot time.
1868. H. Kingsley, Mad. Mathilde, III. 79. It was getting dusk, cockshot time as they would have said at Sheepsden.
2. sb. Twilight.
1598. Florio, Cane e lupo, Cock-shut, or twilight, as when a man cannot discerne a dog from a Wolfe.
1855. Whitby Gloss., Cockshut, the close of day.
