Word: cock Part of Speech: noun Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *keukô Proto-Germanic *kukkaz Proto-West Germanic *kokk Old English cocc Middle English cok English cock From Middle English cok, from Old English coc, cocc (“cock, male bird”), from Proto-West Germanic *kokk, from Proto-Germanic *kukkaz (“cock”), probably of onomatopoeic origin. Cognate with Middle Dutch cocke (“cock, male bird”) and Old Norse kokkr ("cock"; whence Danish kok (“cock”), dialectal Swedish kokk (“cock”)). Reinforced by Old French coc, from the same origin. The sense "penis" is attested since at least the 1610s, with the compound pillicock (“penis”) attested since 1325. Pronunciation: /kɒk/, /kɑk/ 1. A male bird, especially: Labels: countable, uncountable Example: A forlyued cok leiþ eiren in his laste elde... and ȝif any venemous worme sittiþ on broode þerevppon in þe canyculer dayes, þerof is igendrid... a cocatrice. 2. A male bird, especially: Labels: countable, uncountable 3. A valve or tap for controlling flow in plumbing. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: The liquor is discharged from the cock S into liquor cans V […], from which it is transferred to the sugar in the moulds. W represents one of the traps or stairs which communicate with respective floors of the sugarhouse. 4. The hammer of a firearm trigger mechanism. Labels: countable, uncountable 5. A penis. Labels: colloquial, countable, uncountable, vulgar Example: She doesn't see his cock, but she doesn't want to, what's the point, right? Example: My cock is much bigger than yours / My cock can walk right through the door / With a feeling so pure / It's got you screaming back for more 6. The circle at the end of the rink. Labels: countable, uncountable 7. The state of being cocked; an upward turn, tilt or angle. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: […] with a knowing cock of his eye to his next neighbour. Of this person little need be said. Example: […] in 1803; my eyes transmogrified […]; my nose had lost its pretty cock, and had grown elegantly hooked; and […] 8. A stupid, obnoxious or contemptible person. Labels: Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, countable, derogatory, slang, uncountable 9. Nonsense; rubbish; a fraud. Labels: Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, derogatory, slang, uncountable Example: "You used to talk an awful lot of cock." Example: That Hitler's armies can't be beat is just a load of cock, / For Marshal Timoshenko's boys are pissing through von Bock […] 10. An apocryphal story supposedly describing a public event, once sold by street hawkers. Labels: UK, countable, obsolete, slang, uncountable Example: The running patterer cares less than other street-sellers for bad weather, for if he "work" on a wet and gloomy evening, and if the work be "a cock," which is a fictitious statement or even a pretended fictitious statement, there is the less chance of any one detecting the ruse. Example: CURIOSITIES OF STREET LITERATURE: COMPRISING "COCKS," OR "CATCHPENNIES," A Large and Curious Assortment of STREET DROLLERIES, SQUIBS, HISTORIES, COMIC STORIES IN PROSE AND VERSE, […] 11. A man; a fellow. Labels: Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, countable, especially, slang, uncountable Example: All right, cock? Example: Now, in coming down here, I journeyed part of the way with a jolly old cock, who shed a tear with me every time the coach stopped […] 12. A boastful tilt of one's head or hat. Labels: countable, uncountable 13. Shuttlecock. Labels: countable, informal, uncountable 14. A vane in the shape of a cock; a weathercock. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage! blow! / You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout / Till you have drenched our steeples, drowned the cocks! 15. A chief person; a leader or master. Labels: countable, dated, humorous, often, uncountable 16. A leading thing. Labels: countable, obsolete, uncountable Example: The contrarye [side of a die] to this... was called Venus, or Cous, and yt was cocke, the beste that might be cast. Example: Tis sir Salomon's sword; cock of as many men as it hath been drawn against. Woe worth the man that comes in the way of so dead-doing a tool, […] 17. The crow of a cock, especially the first crow in the morning; cockcrow. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet: he begins at curfew, and walks till the first cock; Example: "I suppose, John," said Clara, as her brother entered the apartment," you are glad of a weaker cup this morning than those you were drinking last night - you were carousing till after the first cock." 18. A male fish, especially a salmon or trout. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: As spawning time approaches – autumn or very early winter in most rivers, though in some late-run streams salmon may spawn as late as January or February – the hen's colouration becomes first a matt-pewter and then a drab dark brown-grey. The cock fish, in contrast, begins to gain some brighter colours. 19. The style or gnomon of a sundial. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Sun-dials, when the shadow of the Cock by passing over the lines of the hours[…]show the stay of the time sliding by. 20. The indicator of a balance. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: The cock, or pointer, which makes a right angle with the beam, will stand upright when the weighing is accurate. 21. The bridge piece that affords a bearing for the pivot of a balance in a clock or watch. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: A round small Silver Watch[…]with a steel Chain[…]a brass Cock, an endless Screw