1. lit. The head of a cod-fish. attrib., as cod’s-head soup.
† b. fig. ‘Stupid head.’ Obs.
1607. Drewills Arraignm., in Harl. Misc. (Malh.), III. 56. Lloyd [threatning he] woulde try acquaintance with the others cods-heade.
2. A stupid fellow, a blockhead. (Sometimes amplified as ‘a cod’s head and shoulders.’)
1566. Drant, Horace, Sat., III. B iv b. This coddes heade … This asse, doth wante his comon sence.
1594. Carew, Huarte’s Exam. Wits, i. (1596), 2. His [Cicero’s] sonne … prooued but a Cods-head.
1708. Brit. Apollo, No. 12. 2/2. That Jobbernole Which Men call a Cods-head.
1886. Sat. Rev., 6 March, 328/1. If he had not been what is called in familiar parlance a cod’s-head-and-shoulders himself.
Hence † Cod’s-headed a., stupid.
1708. Motteux, Rabelais, V. xxix. (1737), 135. The silly Cods-headed Brothers of the Noose.
