spatchcock
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: cooking
food
lifestyle
Etymology: The noun is probably derived from one of the following:
* A variant of spitchcock (“eel split lengthwise and broiled”). from Middle English spiche-coke, The further etymology is uncertain; the following possibilities have been suggested:
** From Middle English *speche, *spiche (“to split”) + cock, coken (“to allow (something) to cook; to cook”).
** From spik (“animal fat, especially lard”), spik, spike (“large nail; pointed stud”), or spit, spite (“rod for cooking meat, spit; pointed object”); + cok (“male of the common domestic fowl, cock, rooster”).
* From Irish spot (“spot”) or spochta (the past participle of spoch (“to cut, clip”)) + coc (“male of the common domestic fowl, cock, rooster”).
A derivation from (di)spatch (“to dispose of speedily; to make a speedy end of”) + cock is now thought to be unlikely.
In a few texts from the 1400s–1700s the form smatchcock is found, possibly an error or an alteration under the influence of smatch (“a taste, a flavor”).
The verb is derived from the noun.
Inflected forms:
form: spatchcocks
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: spatchcocks
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: spatchcocking
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: spatchcocked
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: spatchcocked
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: Poultry which has been cut along the spine and spread out for more even cooking.
pos: noun
tags: also
attributive
examples: Spatch cock, abbreviation of a diſpatch cock, an Iriſh diſh upon any ſudden occaſion. It is a hen juſt killed from the rooſt, or yard, and immediately ſkinned, ſplit, and broiled.
He then slew it [a chicken], dipped the corpse in boiling water to loosen the feathers, which he stripped off in masses, cut through its breast longitudinally, and with the aid of an iron plate, placed over a charcoal fire, proceeded to make a spatchcock, or as it is more popularly termed, a "sudden death."
gloss: To cut (poultry) along the spine and spread the halves apart for more even cooking.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: For the party, he spatchcocked and grilled some chickens.
Katniss [Everdeen] emerges alone, smeared in blood and muck and gnawing on the charred remains of a spatchcocked squirrel.
gloss: Often followed by in or into: to interpolate or insert (something into another thing) awkwardly; to sandwich (something within another thing).
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
transitive
examples: I, therefore, spatchcocked into the middle of that telegram a sentence in which I suggested it would be necessary to surrender the garrison, what he should do when he surrendered, and how he should do it.
Why is the underplot of King Lear in which Edmund figures lifted out of [Philip] Sidney's Arcadia and spatchcocked on to a Celtic legend older than history?
Instead of introducing a separate bill on the alternative vote referendum, which would have been supported by Labour in a vote through parliament, the government has spatchcocked it together with the most blatant gerrymander of parliamentary constituency boundaries since the days of the rotten boroughs.
We would have had to spatchcock together whatever coalition we could, but it was profoundly difficult, […]
Derived words: spatchcocked
spatchcocking
Translations: