Forms: 1–3 coc, 1 kok, cocc, 4–6 cok, coke, 4–5 cokke, 5 cokk, kocke, 5–7 cocke, 4– cock. [OE. cocc, coc, kok; cf. ON. kokkr (rare, according to Vigfusson only once in Edda), and F. coq (13th c. in Littré).
Though at home in English and French, not the general name either in Teutonic or Romanic; the latter has derivatives of L. gallus, the former of OTeut. *hanon-: Goth. hana, OS. and OHG. hano, MDu. hāne, Du. haan, MHG. han, Ger. hahn, ON. hani, Sw., Da. hane, OE. hana which scarcely survived into ME. Phonetically, it is possible that cocc is:—OTeut. *kukko-, from same root as CHICKEN (*keukīno-) viz. *keuk-, kuk-. But its frequent early spelling in OE. with k (kok, kokke, etc., 4 times out of 5 in Gregory’s Past.) looks rather as if it were considered foreign; for k is rare, except in foreign words. Also its use in one (later mixed) text of the Salic Law, vii. 6 (MSS. of 8–9th c.), ‘si quis coccum aut gallinam furaverit’ where other MSS. have gallum, and the Malberg glosses have annas, cannas for channas = original Teut. han-, rather favors its being Romanic. In any case, this shows coccus in the Latin of Northern Gaul, a century before the earliest known English instances. (Kilian 1577 has in Du. ‘kocke vetus = haen,’ but the status of this is uncertain.) Wherever the name arose, it was prob. echoic: cf. sense 4.]
I. The domestic fowl.
1. The male of the common domestic fowl, Gallus domesticus, the female being the HEN. (Often called in U.S., as in Kent, rooster.)
c. 897. K. Ælfred, Gregory’s Past., lxiii. 459. Ðonne græt se lareow swa swa kok on niht … Ðæs cocces ðeaw is ðæt he micle hludor singð on uhtan.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., Matt. xxvi. 34. Ærþam þe cocc [Lindisf. & Rushw. hona] crawe þriwa.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gloss. Nomina Avium (Zup.), 307. Gallus, coc.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., III. 6. Þonne coccas crawan.
a. 1250. Owl & Night., 1679. Þe seolve coc þat wel can fihte.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 15571 (Cott.). Ar þe cock [v.r. cok, koc, cokke] him crau to-night.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XIX. 410. Þat acounted conscience At a cokkes fether or an hennes!
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XII. xvii. (1495), 425. Yf the cocke se a goshawke, anone he cryeth to the hennes and fleeth awaye.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 281. Kok, bryd, gallus.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb. (1586), 157 b. Amongst all other householde Poultry, the cheefe place is due to the Cocke and the Henne.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., V. iii. 209. The early Village Cock Hath twice done salutation to the Morne.
1632. Milton, L’Allegro, 49. While the cock … to the stack, or the barn-door, Stoutly struts his dames before. Ibid. (1667), P. L., VII. 443. The crested Cock whose clarion sounds The silent hours.
1756–7. Keysler’s Trav. (1760), IV. 308. The vanes for shewing the sitting of the wind represent stags instead of cocks.
1801. Strutt, Sports & Past., III. vii. 249. Sent his man to the pit in Shoe-Lane, with an hundred pounds and a dunghill cock.
1814. Wordsw., Excursion, V. 807. Roused by the crowing cock at dawn of day.
b. in various proverbial expressions.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 140. Ase me seið, þet coc is kene on his owune mixenne.
1444. Pol. Poems (1859), II. 215. An old proverbe groundid on sapience, Alle goo we stille, the cok hath lowe schoon.
1509. Barclay, Shyp of Folys (1570), 91. The yonge Cocke learneth to crowe hye of the olde.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, III. xviii. (Arb.), 199. As the olde cocke crowes so doeth the chick.
1839. Hallam, Hist. Lit., II. iv. § 62. Having purposely sacrificed this cock to Æsculapius.
2. There are many references to the formerly prevalent amusement of cock-fighting; also to that of cock-throwing, esp. at Shrovetide. Whipping or thrashing the cock, a sport practised at wakes and fairs in the Midlands, in which carters, armed with their whips, were blindfolded, and set round a cock, to whip at random; see Brand, Pop. Antiq. (Shrove-tide).
1409. [see cock-thrashing in 23].
c. 1430. How Good Wijf, 81, in Babees Bk., 40. Go not to þe wrastelinge, ne to schotynge at cok [v.r. at þe cok].
1516. R. Househ. Acc., March 2, in Brand s.v. Cock-throwing, Item to Master Bray for rewards to them that brought Cokkes at Shrovetide at Westmr. xxs.
1546. Plumpton Corr., 250. Theare is apoynted a great number of gentlemen to mette at coxxs at Sheifeild.
a. 1625. Fletcher, Hum. Lieutenant, I. i. Ye shall have game enough, I warrant ye: Every man’s cock shall fight.
a. 1640. J. Smyth, Lives Berkeleys, II. 459 (Brand). Hee also would to the threshing of the Cocke, pucke with Hens blindfolde and the like.
1677. Lond. Gaz., No. 1180/4. The sending in of Cocks to fight at Newmarket.
1783. Poor Robin (N.) [Shrove-tide], There shall store of cocks, By cock-brain’d youths, then suffer knocks.
1824. Westm. Rev., I. 448. To find himself set up like a cock on Shrove Tuesday, for Mr. Landor to shy at.
1856. Emerson, Eng. Traits, Manners, Wks. (Bohn), II. 45. A gentleman [said] ‘Lord Clarendon has pluck like a cock, and will fight till he dies.’
b. Hence Cock of the game (now GAME-COCK, q.v.), fighting cock: a cock bred and trained for cock-fighting. (Also fig. of persons: cf. 7.) To live like fighting cocks: to have a profusion of the best food, to be supplied with the best.
1575. Fulke, Confut. Doct. Purgatory (1577), 127. No maruell but you must crowe like a cocke of the game.
1579. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 106.
1580. North, Plutarch (1676), 44. Promising to give him such hardy Cocks of the game.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 279. Not only these cocks of game, but the very common sort of the dunghill, are as proud and high minded.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1673), 504. Take the stones of a fighting cock.
a. 1661. Fuller, Worthies (1684), 161. [He] was a Cock of the Game, being the only Man of Note … who lost his Life to save his Queen and Country.
1792. H. Brooke, Fool of Qual., II. 113. My adversaries, on all sides, are such cocks of the game.
1813. Wellington, in Gurw., Disp., X. 569. The Portuguese are now the fighting cocks of the army.
1826. W. Cobbett, Rur. Rides (1885), II. 108. [They] live like fighting-cocks upon the labour of the rest of the community.
1861. Gen. P. Thompson, Audi Alt., III. cliv. 154. It is maintained in opposition, that they lived like fighting-cocks.
c. fig. That cock won’t fight (vulgar): that will not do, not ‘go down.’
1850. Thackeray, Pendennis, lxvii. ‘Tell that to the marines, Major,’ replied the valet, ‘that cock won’t fight with me.’
1850. Kingsley, Alt. Locke, xxiv. (1874), 179. I tried to see the arms on the carriage, but there were none; so that cock wouldn’t fight.
3. The crowing of the cock in the early morning has led to the use of the expressions first, second, third cock, etc., to express points of time.
[c. 1386. Chaucer, Miller’s T., 501. Whan that the firste cok hath crowe. Ibid., Reeve’s T., 313. Til that the thridde cok bigan to synge.]
c. 1440. Ipomydon, 783. At the fryst cokke roose hee.
1525. Jestes Widow Edith, in Brand s.v. Cock-crow, I shall not lye, till after the first cok.
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 166. [see the whole section].
1605. Shaks., Lear, III. iv. 12. This is the foule Flibbertigibbet; hee begins at Curfew, and walkes at firste Cocke. Ibid., Macb., II. iii. 27. We were carowsing till the second Cock.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., VII. 337. They sup’d, and were iouiall, and at the first Cocke went foorth to the woode.
1842. Longf., Sp. Stud., I. iv. Here we are, half-way to Alcala, between cocks and midnight.
4. As an imitation of the cluck of the bird.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Nun’s Pr. T., 457. Nothing ne list him thanne for to crow, But cried anon cok, cok, and up he sterte.
5. A figure of the bird mounted on a spindle, as a vane to turn with the wind; a weather-cock.
1605. Shaks., Lear, III. ii. 3. You Cataracts, and Hyrricano’s spout, Till you haue drench’d our Steeples, drown the Cockes.
a. 1658. Cleveland, Model New Rel., 2. What News at Babel now? how stands the Cock?
† b. A toy of the shape of a cock or fowl. ? Obs.
1626. Bacon, Sylva (1651), § 172. Children have also little Things they call Cockes, which have Water in them; And when they blow, or whistle in them, they yeeld a Trembling Noise. Ibid. (1677), § 176. Boyling in a full Vessell giveth a bubbling sound, drawing somewhat near to the Cocks used by Children.
II. Figuratively applied to men.
6. One who arouses slumberers, a watchman of the night; applied to ministers of religion.
[c. 1386. Chaucer, Prol., 823. Amorwe whan þat day gan for to sprynge Vp roos oure hoost and was oure aller cok.]
1614. T. Adams, Devil’s Banquet, 120. No noyse to waken the Sybarites, unlesse the Cockes, the Ministers…. Few will beleeue Christs Cocke, though hee crowes to them that the day is broken.
1871. J. Larwood, Bk. Clerical Anecd., 162. In the ages of ignorance the clergy frequently called themselves the Cocks of the Almighty.
7. Leader, head, chief man, ruling spirit; formerly, also, victor: said also of things. Cock of the school: the leader in games, fighting, and the like. Cock of the walk: the chief person of a circle, coterie, etc. See WALK.
1542. N. Udall, Erasm. Apoph., 164. The contrarye [side to dice] to this … was called venus, or Cous, and yt was cocke, the beste that might be cast.
1581. Sidney, Apol. Poetrie (Arb.), 43. Alexander and Darius, when they straue who should be Cocke of thys worlds dung-hill.
1652. Shirley, Brothers, III. 38 (N.). She may be cock a tvventy, nay for aught I knovv she is Immortall.
1670. Moral State Eng., 118. To be the Cock of all them with whom he converses.
1672. Marvell, Reh. Transp., I. 218. ’Tis Sir Salomon’s sword, Cock of as many men as it hath been drawn against.
1695. Cotton, Epigr. of Martial, 115. Hermes, Master of Fence, and Fencer too, The Cock and Terror of the Sword-men’s Crew.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 131, ¶ 9. Sir Andrew is grown the Cock of the Club since he left us.
1729. Swift, Grand Question. At cuffs I was always the cock of the school.
a. 1734. North, Life Ld. Guilford (1803), I. 68 (D.). The post, as they call it, of cock of the circuit.
1840. Thackeray, Catherine, viii. He was the cock of the school out of doors, and the very last boy in.
1855. Motley, Dutch Rep. (1861), I. 253. In the states assembly they were then the cocks of the walk.
1876. F. E. Trollope, Charming Fellow, I. vi. 70. He bruised his way to the perilous glory of being cock of the school.
† b. Hence, perhaps, the phrase To cry cock: ? to acknowledge (someone) as victor. Obs.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, XI. Prol. 120. Becum thow cowart, craudoun recryand, And by consent cry cok, thi deid is dycht.
8. colloq. One who fights with pluck and spirit. Hence a familiar term of appreciation among the vulgar.
1639. Massinger, Unnat. Combat, II. i. He has drawn blood of him yet. Well done, old cock!
1684. Bunyan, Pilgr. Progr., II. 112. Hon. I would a fought as long as Breath had been in me. Greatheart. Well said, Father Honest … thou art a Cock of the right kind.
1710. Brit. Apollo, III. No. 31. 3/2. The Young Cock cry’d I will Not meddle nor make.
1725. Bailey, Erasm. Colloq. (1877), 378 (D.). I am going to an old club of merry cocks [vetustissimum Gallorum contubernium] to endeavour to patch up what I have lost.
1771. Smollett, Humph. Cl., I. 6 May, let. ii. The doctor being a shy cock.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., xliv. ‘Do you always smoke arter you goes to bed, old cock?’
1842. S. Lover, Handy Andy, iii. 24. ‘That’s right, my cock,’ said he to Murtough.
III. Of other birds, etc.
9. The male of various other birds. See also attrib. uses in 21, COCK-BIRD, COCK-SPARROW, etc.
c. 1325[?]. in Rel. Ant., I. 168. Fesant henne ant fesant cocke.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. XIV. 172. And whan þe pocok caukede þer-of ich took kepe, How vn-corteisliche þe cok hus kynde forth strenede.
c. 1420. Liber Cocorum (1862), 36. Tho fesaunt kok, but not tho henne.
c. 1475. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 762/26. Hic filicus, a telle cok. Hec filica, a telle hen.
1530. Palsgr., 206/2. Cocke, a he byrde.
1576. Fleming, Panoplie Ep., 354. Pigeons bring foorth two egges, the first a cocke, the second a henne.
1870. Blaine, Encycl. Rural Sports, 862. Avoid killing a hen pheasant, except on … the increase of the hen birds to such a degree as to out-number the cocks.
c. Short for WOODCOCK. Often attrib.
1530–1691. [implied in COCKSHOOT].
1741. Compl. Fam.-Piece, II. i. 323. Seeking for Cocks or Snipes about Plashes.
1870. Blaine, Encycl. Rural Sports, § 2658. It is distressing … to witness the shifts that both cocks and snipes are put to. Ibid. The sportsman must not expect great success in cock shooting in a very severe frost.
10. † Cock of Ind (F. coq d’Inde): a Turkey-cock. Cock of the mountain or wood: the Capercailye. Cock of the North: the BRAMBLING.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 25. His dronken red snout, I would haue made as oft chaunge from hew to hew, As dooth the cocks of Inde.
1649. Fuller, Just Man’s Funeral, 29. A bird peculiar to Ireland, called the Cock of the Wood, remarkable for the fine flesh and follie thereof.
1678. Ray, Willughby’s Ornith., 172. [Capercaillie, Tetrao urogallus.] The cock of the Mountain or Wood.
1772. Forster, Hudson’s Bay Birds, in Phil. Trans., LXII. 395. The great cock of the wood is as big as a turkey.
1807. Sir W. Bowles, in Lett. 1st Earl Malmesbury (1870), II. 34. To shoot any Cocks of the wood … of which we hear such famous accounts here.
1882. Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, IX. 504. The Brambling, or Cock of the North, was rather a rare winter visitor.
11. Blue, harvest, salmon cock: local names of a salmon in one of its stages.
1677. Johnson, in Ray’s Corr. (1848), 127. A salmon cock, which some call a half-fish, usually about twenty or twenty-two inches, and a whole fish, above that length.
1861. Act 24 & 25 Vict., c. 109 § 4. Whether known by the names … salmon … grilse, botcher, blue cock, blue pole. Ibid. Puggpeal, harvestcock, sea trout … or by any other local name.
IV. Technical applications. [The connection of some of these with this word is doubtful.]
12. A spout or short pipe serving as a channel for passing liquids through, and having an appliance for regulating or stopping the flow; a tap.
The origin of the name in this sense is not very clear: the resemblance of some stop-cocks to a cock’s head with its comb, readily suggests itself; but some of the earlier quotations seem to imply that the power of closing the ‘cock’ was no essential feature, i.e., that a cock was not necessarily a stop-cock, but that the word simply meant a short spout for the emission of fluid; in others it appears to be = nozzle or mouthpiece. But in German, hahn has been used in the same sense for an equally long period, and an example of 1503 in Grimm has ‘wenn es (ein kind) einen hän ufgewint, so louft der wein aller aus’ (if the child turns a cock, all the wine runs out), clearly referring to a stop-cock.
1481–90. Howard Househ. Bks. (1844), 353. Item, to a founder for mendyng of the kok viijd.
1580. Baret, Alv., C 718. A cock in a condit to let out water, papilla; vn petit bout persé, qu’on met au bout de tuiaux des fontaines par les quels l’eaue sort.
1593. Rites & Mon. Ch. Durh. (1842), 70. The Laver of marble, having many litle cunditts or spouts of Brasse, with xxiiij cockes of Brasse rownd about yt.
1596. Harington, in Metam. Ajax (1814), 7. To which pipe you must have a cock or a washer, to yield water with some pretty strength.
1607. Shaks., Timon, II. ii. 171. I haue retyr’d me to a wastefull cocke, And set mine eyes at flow.
1611. Coryat, Crudities, 29. Artificiall rocks most curiously contrived by the very quintessence of art with fine water spowting out of the cocks.
1611. Cotgr., Marmouset, the cocke of a cesterne, or fountaine, made like a womans dug; any Anticke Image from whose teats water trilleth. Canelle … the cocke, or spout of a conduit.
1621. Quarles, Argalus & P. (1671), 64.
| Beneath, a rocky Cistern did retain | |
| The water, sliding through the Cocks of Cane. |
1654. Warren, Unbelievers, 28. Unlesse faith be the conduit-pipe, and cock to conveigh this water.
1655. Marq. Worcester, Cent. Inv., 8 68. To turn two Cocks, that one Vessel of water being consumed, another begins to … re-fill.
1679. Plot, Staffordsh. (1686), 337. The water being let through a Cock of above an inch bore into a little wheel of wood, made with Ladles to receive it.
1681. Blount, Glossogr. [see COCK-A-HOOP, Etymol.]
1727. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Distilling, The Vessel has a Channel, through which the Water incontinently runs by loosening the Cock.
1743. R. Maxwell, Trans. Agric. Scotl., 344 (Jam.). Let go that Water by means of a Spigget and Fosset, or Cock and Pail, as we call it in Scotland.
1833. Act 3 & 4 Will. IV., c. 46 § 97. The said commissioners may provide one or more fire engines and fire cocks or plugs.
b. To turn the cock: to open it. Full cock: with the cock full open.
1622. T. Stoughton, Chr. Sacrif., viii. 97. Whereby we turne the cocke of this conduit, and so draw the water of life.
1728. Pope, Dunc., II. 170. Thus the small jett which hasty hands unlock Spirts in the gardner’s eyes who turns the cock.
1884. Pall Mall Gaz., 19 May, 11/1. To turn on all the taps full cock.
c. with defining attributes prefixed, as ball-, feed-, four-way-, gage-, oil-, stop-, turn-, water-cock, etc.: see these words.
13. In fire-arms, a part of the mechanism for discharging the piece, consisting of a lever capable of being raised and then brought down by the trigger; varying in shape and use with the successive changes in the construction of firearms:
a. in a matchlock, a lever for holding the match and bringing it down on the powder in the touch-pan; b. in a flintlock, a spring-lever for holding the flint and striking it down upon the steel; c. in a percussion-lock, a spring hammer which strikes the cap on the nipple, or, in centre-firing guns, causes the needle to explode the cartridge.
So called from its original shape (Hildebrand); similarly hahn in German, haen, haan in Du. from end of 16th c. (Connection with It. cocca notch (of an arrow) appears to be unproved.)
1566. Earl Bedford, Murd. Rizzio, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., Ser. I. clxxxvi. II. 213. One Patricke Balentine … offered a dagge [pistol] agaynste her bellye with the cocke downe.
1590. Sir J. Smyth, Disc. Weapons, 47. And if their peeces be Petronells, then if their stones should happen to breake, or not to stand right in their cockes, whereby they should faile to strike just … or being of match, if their matches be not good and stiffe, and well set in their serpentines or cockes, they also shall faile in their discharging.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., II. i. 55. Pistols cocke is vp, and flashing fire will follow.
1613. Voy. Guiana, in Harl. Misc. (Malh.), III. 186. Had their match in cock ready to discharge.
1660. Boyle, New Exp. Phys.-Mech., xiv. 89. The Cock falling with its wonted violence upon the Steel, struck out of it … many … parts of Fire.
1685. Lond. Gaz., No. 2045/4. Left in an Hackney Coach on Tuesday 23d Instant, a pair of Pistols with each two Cocks and one Barril.
1711. Mil. & Sea Dict. (ed. 4), The Cock half bent; Is the usual standing of it, when neither cock’d nor quite down.
1809. Wellington, in Gurw., Disp., IV. 447. With his firelock nearly at the position of the charge with his thumb upon the cock.
1875. ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Sports, I. I. xi. 55. Never put the caps on before loading; the cock may slip, even with the best lock.
b. At cock, at (on) full cock: with the cock drawn full back, or in the position in which pulling the trigger will cause it to act. At (on) half-cock: with the cock lifted off the nipple (or off the steel in flintlocks) to the first catch, but not drawn up so that the trigger can act (cf. quot. 1711 in prec.). Also fig. [Here really a verbal sb., from the verb.]
1745. Desaguliers, Nat. Philos., I. 108. The gun being at Half-Cock, the Spring acts upon the Tumbler with more Advantage.
1837. Disraeli, Corr. w. Sister, 21 Nov. (1886), 75. H. Liddell…, flushed with his Durham triumph, had been at half-cock all day.
a. 1845. Hood, Ghost, xv. Off he went, Like fowling-piece at cock!
1861. W. H. Russell, in Times, 29 July, 6/2. In one stack I saw muskets on full cock, on half cock, and with hammers on the nipple.
1873. B. Stewart, Conserv. Force, vi. 159. A rifle at full cock, with a delicate hair-trigger, is a very good instance.
† 14. Part of a plow as formerly made. Obs.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 3. The partes of the plowe … the ploughe-fote, the ploughe-eare or coke, the share, the culture, and ploughe-mal. Ibid., § 4. And some men haue in stede of the plough-fote, a piece of yron set vpryghte in the farther ende of the ploughe-beame, and they calle it a coke, made with .ii. or thre nyckes, and that serueth for depenes.
1790. W. Marshall, Midl. Count., Gloss. (E. D. S.), Cock, a species of draft-iron of a plow. See Clevvy.
1819. Rees, Cycl., s.v. Plough, There is also a cock or a sort of crank, fixed by a screw and nut, so as to keep the share in its proper situation when the plough is drawn backwards.
15. The pointer, needle or tongue of a balance.
1611. Cotgr., Brayette … the tryall, tongue, or cocke, of a Ballance.
1708–15. Kersey, Cock, the Needle of a Ballance.
1833. J. Holland, Manuf. Metals (Cabinet Cycl.), II. 295. The cock, or pointer, which makes a right angle with the beam, will stand upright when the weighing is accurate.
b. The style or gnomon of a sundial.
1613. R. C., Table Alph. (ed. 3), Gnomen, the stile, or cock of a diall.
1656. Dugard, Gate Lat. Unl., § 463. 133. (sun-dials) where the shadow of the Cock by passing over the lines of the hours;… shew the stay of the time sliding by.
1708. J. Smith, Horol. Disquis., 30. A large Dial made with a double Cock, that is with two Cocks of the same size fixed together.
1823. G. Crabb, Technol. Dict., s.v. Compass, By turning the dial about, the cock or style stands directly over the needle.
16. Clock-making. An overhanging bracket attached to the plate of a watch or clock to support the outer end of the pivot of a wheel or pendulum; as the balance-cock of a watch. So F. coq, Ger. hahn.
1678. Lond. Gaz., No. 1286/4. A round small Silver Watch … with a steel Chain … a brass Cock, an endless Screw.
1696. Derham, Artif. Clockm., 4. The wrought piece which covers the Ballance, and in which the upper Pevet of the Ballance plays, is the Cock.
1798. Trans. Soc. Arts, XVI. 307. The cock screwed to the potance plate.
1884. F. J. Britten, Watch & Clockm., 20. In the centre of cock jewel. Ibid., 116. The top pivot of the fourth wheel pinion is carried on a cock.
17. The bush of a block or sheave, in which the pin revolves. Also COAK.
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., v. 19. Shiuers … is a little Wheele fixed in the middest with a Cocke or Pin.
1678. Phillips, Cocks (in Navigation), little square Rings of Brass with a hole in them put into the middle of some of the greatest wooden Shears [mispr. for Sheaves] to keep them from splitting by the pin of the block whereon they turn.
1768. E. Buys, Dict. Terms Art, s.v. Cocks, (on Ship-board).
18. The mark at which curlers aim.
1787. Burns, Tam Samson’s Elegy, iv. When to the lochs the curlers flock … Wha will they station at the cock? Tam Samson’s dead!
1815. Scott, Guy M., xxxii. ‘About the folk that was playing at the curling, and about auld Jock Stevenson that was at the cock.’
19. slang. Short for cock-and-bull story: A fictitious narrative, a canard.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 214/2. Getting rid of what are technically termed ‘cocks’; which, in polite language, means accounts of fabulous duels [etc.].
1860. Sala, Baddington Peerage, II. 288 (Hoppe). News … of the apocryphal nature known as ‘cocks.’
20. = PENIS: Ger. hahn, hähnchen.
1730–6. in Bailey (Folio).
1737. trans. Rabelais, I. 185, note. [So in ed. 1807 (Longmans, etc.) I. 169, and ed. 1849 (Bohn), I. 135.] (The current name among the people, but, pudoris causa, not admissible in polite speech or literature; in scientific language the Latin is used. In origin perhaps intimately connected with sense 12.)
V. Attrib. and Comb.
21. attrib. In sense of ‘male’: a. of birds.
1555. Eden, Decades W. Ind., I. I. (Arb.), 67. Cocke chikyns.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., IV. (1586), 159 b. If you woulde have all Cocke Chickins, you must choose such Egges as be longest and sharpest.
1626. Bacon, Sylva (1677), § 239. Cock-birds, among Singing-birds, are ever the better singers.
1760. Edwards, Acc. Bird, in Phil. Trans., LI. 836. Produced from a turkey-hen and a cock-pheasant.
1842. Penny Cycl., XXIII. 144/1. Each cock-bird [ostrich] will have its fair share of incubation.
1888. Pall Mall Gaz., 1 Feb., 4/2. A sympathetic ‘cock fowl’ singing as best he can.
b. more generally.
1632. Brome, Northern Lasse, I. v. Are you the Cock-bawd to the hen was here.
1676. Shadwell, Virtuoso, I. i. 4. To see a Cock-Lobster dissected.
c. 1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Cock-oyster, the Male. Ibid., Cock-pimp, a supposed Husband to a Bawd.
1865. J. G. Bertram, Harvest Sea, xiii. (1873), 266. While there are the cock and hen lobster, I never saw any difference in the sex of the shrimps.
22. attrib. Chief, leading; ‘crack’: often with the notion of swaggering, assuming the highest place.
1628. Ford, Lover’s Melanch., V. i. (1629), 75 Oh thou Cock-vermine of iniquity.
1672. Marvell, Reh. Transp., I. 64. The Cock-Divine and the Cock-Wit of the Family.
1687. Shadwell, Juvenal, Ded. A iij b. I will not say as a Cock Translator does of Lucretius and Virgil.
1690. Crowne, Eng. Frier, I. i. 4. He boasts himself to be the Cock-drinker, Cock-fighter, and Cock-wencher o’ Christendom.
1693. Tate, in Dryden’s Juvenal (1697), 28. A Cock-Zealot of this Preaching Crew.
1826. W. Cobbett, Rur. Rides (1885), II. 260. A big white house … occupied by one Goodlad, who was a cock justice of the peace.
1865. Pall Mall Gaz., 11 July, 3/2. The cock attorney of the place.
b. Highest in position, most prominent, chief.
1651. Cartwright, Cert. Relig., I. 15. Unity may consist in this, as well as in being hudled up together in a rick with one cock-sheave above the rest. See COCK-FEATHER, and COCK-MATE.
23. Comb., as cock-bag, -feeder, -feeding, -house, -main, -pen, -shears, -walk; cock-rumped, -trodden, ppl. adjs.; cock-and-hen-paddle (see COCK-PADDLE); cock-brass = COCK-METAL; cock-bread, specially prepared food for fighting-cocks; † cock’s-egg (see quots., and cf. COCKATRICE); † cock-glade = COCK-SHOOT; † cock-head (see quot. and COCK’S-HEAD); cock-mass, mass at cock-crowing; cock-money = COCK-PENNY; cock-pace, a strutting step like that of a cock; cock-pecked a. (said of a wife, after hen-pecked); cock-setter, one who sets the cocks in a cock-fight; † cock-stele, a stick to throw at a cock at Shrovetide (see COCK-THROWING); † cock-thrashing (cf. sense 2); cock-watch (see quot. and 16).
1611. Markham, Country Content., I. xix. (1668), 87. Stow your Cock in a *Cock-bag.
1834–43. Southey, Doctor, clxiv. (D.). You feed us with *cock-bread and arm us with steel spurs.
1626. Raleigh’s Ghost, in Harl. Misc. (Malh.), III. 531. Every minute he produced new and unnatural *Cocks-eggs … hatched them from the devilishness of his policy, and brought forth serpents to poison all Europe.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Cock’s-egg, an abortive egg, without a yolk.
1883. Miss Burne, Shropsh. Folklore, 229. The small yolkless eggs which hens sometimes lay are called [in Shropshire] cock’s eggs…. They are very unlucky, and must never be brought into a house.
1834. Sport. Mag., Nov., 53/1. The most celebrated *cock-feeder England ever produced.
1870. Blaine, Encycl. Rur. Sports, § 4001. *Cock feeding and training are words of synonymous import.
1879. Miss Jackson, Shropsh. Wd.-bk., *Cockhead, the top part of the spindle which carries the upper mill-stone in a flour-mill.
1616. Surfl. & Markh., Country Farm, 670. The *cocke-house where hee shall keepe his fighting cockes and hennes.
1677. W. Hubbard, Narrative, II. 70. While himself searching about farther found three Guns hid in a Cox-house.
1795. Southey, Lett. fr. Spain (1799), 79. At midnight they all went to *Cock-mass.
1876. Grant, Burgh Sch. Scotl., II. xiv. 478. Fastern’s E’en, when the master received from the boys a small contribution under the name of *cock-money.
1569. J. Sanford, trans. Agrippa’s Van. Artes, 72 b. For who is that whiche seethe a man go with a *cocke pase.
1753. Ess. Celibacy, 96. Male usurpation, or being *cock-pecked, depends, for the most part, on the want of good nature, and a little submission in the female.
1831. Western Statesman, 1 April, 4/1. Fortunately these classes are not numerous, otherwise we should be a cock-pecked and hen-pecked generation.
1875. New Quarterly Mag., July, 501. The refuge of cockpecked woman.
1611. Markham, Country Content., I. xix. (1668), 86. Of the *Cock-Pen. This pen should be made of very close boards.
1712. Lond. Gaz., No. 5037/15. Lost … a Bay brown Gelding … a little *Cock-rumpt.
1828. Mrs. Bray, Protestant, viii. (1845), 88. There is not a bear-ward, nor a *cock-setter, nor a sticker of bills for lost goods on Paul’s Cross, but will give thee a character for excellence in all the roguery that falls within the ken of their vocations.
1611. Markham, Country Content., I. xix. (1668), 90. With a pair of fine *Cock shears, you shall cut all his main off.
a. 1535. More, in Roper, Life (ed. Singer), 187. I am called chyldhood, in play is all my mynde, To cast a coyte, a *cockstele, and a ball. Ibid. (1553), Answ. to Poisoned Bk., Wks. 1126/1. Whansoeuer hys new sling and hys new stone … come ones into my handes, I shall turne his slynge into a cokstewe [? stele], and hys stone into a fether.
1409. Proclam., in H. T. Riley, Mem. Lond. (1868), 571. The games called ‘foteballe’ and *‘cokthresshyng.’
1589. Fleming, Virg. Georg., III. 46, marg. note. Hens prooue with eg sometimes though they be not *cocktrodden.
c. 1450. Bk. Hawking, in Rel. Ant., I. 305. Take a *cokke torde soden in vinegre.
1879. I. Herrmann, Horology, in Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 364/2. In the three quarter plate or *cock watches (that is a watch … having a separate cock for each wheel).
