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▪ I. ˈweathercock, n.
Forms: see weather n. and cock n.
[Cf. Du. weerhaan, G. wetterhahn, Sw. väder-, Da. veirhane.]
1. A vane in the form of a cock, which turns with its head to the wind. Also used gen. for a vane of any form. Often mentioned as a symbol of mutability or fickleness.
a1300Neckam de Utensil. in Wright Vocab. 115 Ventilogium, veder-coc. 1340Ayenb. 180 Þeruore hi byeþ ase þe wedercoc þet is ope þe steple, þet him went mid eche wynde. a1400Chaucer Agst. Woman Unconstant 12 As a wedercok, that turneth his face With every wind. c1480Henryson Test. Cress. 567 Thairfoir, I reid ȝe tak thame as ȝe find, For thay ar sad as Widdercock in Wind. 1546Inv. Ch. Goods York etc. (Surtees) 86 The said Steple havyng a whether cokke theruppon all gylt. 1683D. A. Art of Converse 21 Some are as changeable as weather-cocks in their humours. 1790Cowper Let. Lady Hesketh 22 Mar., I have as many opinions about it as there are whims in a weathercock. 1833L. Ritchie Wand. Loire 37 The Duc de Choiseul..consoled himself by setting up the head of Voltaire as a weathercock. 1867H. Latham Black & White 100 The most conspicuous weather-cock in the town is a golden trumpet on the spire of one of the churches.
2. fig.
a. of things (in various obvious allusions). † upon the weathercock, inclined to turn and vary.
1589Greene Menaphon (Arb.) 48 No doubt your mother was made of a Weathercocke, that brought foorth such a wauering companion. 1661Godolphin View Adm. Jurisd. Introd. [a], He that vents his own Notions, or sails by the weather-cock of his own Brain. 1687Dryden Hind & P. i. 465 The Word's a weathercock for ev'ry wind. 1702Vanbrugh False Fr. i. B 2, As much upon the Weather-cock as the Ladies are, there are some the Wind must blow hard to fetch 'em about. 1888Bryce Amer. Commw. III. lxxix. 35 Newspapers are powerful in three ways, as narrators, as advocates, and as weathercocks.
b. of persons; esp. one who is changeable or inconstant.
1588Shakes. L.L.L. iv. i. 97 What plume of feathers is hee that indited this Letter? What veine? What Wether⁓cocke? 1598― Merry W. iii. ii. 18 Where had you this pretty weather-cocke? 1607Middleton Fam. Love ii. (1608) C 2, I thinke we loose part of our happinesse when we make these weathercocks our equalls. 1670Dryden 1st Pt. Conq. Granada iii. (1672) 21 The word which I have giv'n shall stand like Fate; Not like the King's, that weathercock of State. 1799Nelson 6 Apr. in Nicolas Disp. III. 316 The last are weathercocks, and will always be on the side of the conqueror. a1850J. C. Calhoun Wks. (1874) II. 178, I ask the advocates of this doctrine, in what do they differ in their actions from the mere trimmer, the political weather⁓cock? 1870R. Brough Marston Lynch xiv. 118 He was..a terrible weathercock in the matter of opinion.
3. a. attrib. and appos., passing into adj. = changeable, inconstant.
a1680Charnock Attrib. God (1834) I. 558 The wavering and weathercock resolutions of men. 1710in Hearne Collect. 7 Mar. (O.H.S.) II. 356 Not weather-Cock Kennett such turning can show. 1801Marvellous Love-Story II. 316 Miss Harrison was one of those every-day sort of weather⁓cock characters who veer about with every varying gust of prejudice, folly, or envy. 1818Coleridge Friend (1865) 216 Their political opinions depend with weathercock uncertainty on the winds of rumour that blow from France. 1881M. E. Braddon Asph. II. 162 In affairs of the heart, Mr. Turchill belonged to the weathercock species.
b. Comb.: weathercock-like adj., weathercock-wise adv.
1663Gerbier Counsel 2 Inslaved by Weather-cok-like-spirits to make their Buildings according unto things a la mode. 1874L. Carr Jud. Gwynne II. vii. 192 It was not in his steadfast nature to veer about, weather-cock-wise.
c. Aeronaut. Used attrib. and as adj. with reference to the tendency of an aircraft to turn away from the set compass direction into the relative wind.
1898Aeronaut. Jrnl. Jan. 6/2 The little vertical rudder has a little bit of a weather-cock action. If the wind suddenly shifts, it swings the machine round to head the wind. 1916G. C. Loening Military Aeroplanes xii. 166 Some tendency to head into the relative wind is necessary. This is obtained by having enough rudder or fin surface aft to bring the directional center back of the c.g. and is called ‘weathercock’ stability. 1928N. Macmillan Art of Flying vii. 74 A seaplane is usually directionally stable to the wind on the water with engine stopped, a quality which is described as being ‘weathercock’... If the seaplane is weathercock, she will ride head to wind and drift backward. 1935C. G. Burge Compl. Bk. Aviation 616 Weathercock instability. 1945Jrnl. R. Aeronaut. Soc. XL. 461/2 Weathercock stability should be reasonably high, to cut down the magnitude of the inadvertent skid. 1970T. Hacker Flight Stability & Control vii. 160 The variation of the vertical tail area will influence the weathercock stability.
Hence ˈweathercockish, -cocky adjs., fickle, changeable. ˈweathercockism, changeableness.
1843Fraser's Mag. XXVII. 301 Thiers will always be regarded as the very condensed essence of weathercockism. 1886‘Ouida’ House Party ix. (1887) 198 She is what her husband characterises as ‘weathercocky’. 1887Sat. Rev. 12 Feb. 213/2 To do these Radicals justice, there is a great deal of consistency in their weathercockism.
▪ II. ˈweathercock, v.
[f. prec. n.]
†1. intr. to weathercock it: to veer or vary like a weathercock. Obs.
1654J. P. Tyrants & Protectors 39 Men that will be of the Kings Religion, be he of what Religion he will, and are clamorous against all that cannot weather-cock it like themselves. 1824Blackw. Edin. Mag. June 703/2 No change of times can ever change that feeling in me. Let others weather-cock it to and fro as they please.
2. trans. To provide with a weathercock; to serve as a weathercock for.
1658S. Austin's Naps upon Parnassus B 4, But that's a work onely befits the Gods, To Weather-cock their Eyes with fishing-rods. 1864Tennyson Aylmer's F. 17 Whose blazing wyvern weathercock'd the spire. 1883Harper's Mag. Apr. 698/2 Elaborately adorned gables,..scrolled, and weather-cocked.
3. To send (a person) up to the weathercock. jocular nonce-use.
a1845[see masthead v. 1].
4. intr.
a. Naut. Of a ship: to (tend to) head into the wind.
1952Smith & Violet Wind calls Tune i. 19 She would weathercock head to seas and, under mizzen and foresail, she would sail well without anybody at the tiller. 1974Tel. (Brisbane) 4 June 8/5 In these conditions the boats had a strong tendency to weathercock, making it exceptionally difficult to pick up buoys.
b. intr. (See quot. 1956.) Also trans., to cause to weathercock.
1956W. A. Heflin U.S. Air Force Dict. 565/2 Weathercock. Of an airplane, rocket, or similar body: to align, or attempt to align, its longitudinal axis with the direction of the wind. 1976‘M. Albrand’ Taste of Terror v. 38 That terrible cross-wind caught the plane's high vertical stabilizer and began to weathercock it into the wind.
Hence ˈweathercocking vbl. n.
1952Smith & Violet Wind calls Tune vi. 59 We had to get the mizzen as flat as possible to make it more efficient as a ‘weather cocking’ influence. 1985Flight 4 May 23/3 The butterfly tail..actually eliminates weathercocking in crosswinds. |