| 释义 |
▪ I. cock, n.1|kɒk|
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 n.1 (*keukīno-) viz. *keuk-, kuk-. But its frequent early spelling in OE. with k (kok, kokke, etc., four times out of five 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 favours 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. a. The male of the common domestic fowl, Gallus domesticus, the female being the hen. (Often called in U.S., as in Kent, rooster.)
c897K. 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. c1000Ags. Gosp. Matt. xxvi. 34 ærþam þe cocc [Lindisf. & Rushw. hona] crawe þriwa. c1000ælfric Gloss. Nomina Avium (Zup.) 307 Gallus, coc. c1000Sax. Leechd. III. 6 Þonne coccas crawan. a1250Owl & Night. 1679 Þe seolve coc þat wel can fihte. a1300Cursor M. 15571 (Cott.) Ar þe cock [v.r. cok, koc, cokke] him crau to-night. 1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xix. 410 Þat acounted conscience At a cokkes fether or an hennes! 1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xii. xvii. (1495) 425 Yf the cocke se a goshawke, anone he cryeth to the hennes and fleeth awaye. 1440Promp. Parv. 281 Kok, bryd, gallus. 1577B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. (1586) 157 b, Amongst all other householde Poultry, the cheefe place is due to the Cocke and the Henne. 1594Shakes. Rich. III, v. iii. 209 The early Village Cock Hath twice done salutation to the Morne. 1632Milton L'Allegro 49 While the cock..to the stack, or the barn-door, Stoutly struts his dames before. 1667― P.L. vii. 443 The crested Cock whose clarion sounds The silent hours. 1756–7Keysler's Trav. (1760) IV. 308 The vanes for shewing the sitting of the wind represent stags instead of cocks. 1801Strutt Sports & Past. iii. vii. 249 Sent his man to the pit in Shoe-Lane, with an hundred pounds and a dunghill cock. 1814Wordsw. Excursion v. 807 Roused by the crowing cock at dawn of day.
b. in various proverbial expressions.
a1225Ancr. R. 140 Ase me seið, þet coc is kene on his owune mixenne. 1444Pol. Poems (1859) II. 215 An old proverbe groundid on sapience, Alle goo we stille, the cok hath lowe schoon. 1509Barclay Shyp of Folys (1570) 91 The yonge Cocke learneth to crowe hye of the olde. 1589Puttenham Eng. Poesie iii. xviii. (Arb.) 199 As the olde cocke crowes so doeth the chick. 1839Hallam Hist. Lit. ii. iv. §62 Having purposely sacrificed this cock to æsculapius.
2. a. 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]. c1430How Good Wijf 81 in Babees Bk. 40 Go not to þe wrastelinge, ne to schotynge at cok [v.r. at þe cok]. 1516R. Househ. Acc. Mar. 2 in Brand s.v. Cock-throwing, Item to Master Bray for rewards to them that brought Cokkes at Shrovetide at Westmr. xxs. 1546Plumpton Corr. 250 Theare is apoynted a great number of gentlemen to mette at coxxs at Sheifeild. a1625Fletcher Hum. Lieutenant i. i, Ye shall have game enough, I warrant ye: Every man's cock shall fight. a1640J. Smyth Lives Berkeleys II. 459 (Brand) Hee also would to the threshing of the Cocke, pucke with Hens blindfolde and the like. 1677Lond. Gaz. No. 1180/4 The sending in of Cocks to fight at Newmarket. 1783Poor Robin (N.) [Shrove-tide], There shall store of cocks, By cockbrain'd youths, then suffer knocks. 1824Westm. Rev. I. 448 To find himself set up like a cock on Shrove Tuesday, for Mr. Landor to shy at. 1856Emerson 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.
1575Fulke Confut. Doct. Purgatory (1577) 127 No maruell but you must crowe like a cocke of the game. 1579Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 106. 1580 North Plutarch (1676) 44 Promising to give him such hardy Cocks of the game. 1601Holland Pliny I. 279 Not only these cocks of game, but the very common sort of the dunghill. 1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1673) 504 Take the stones of a fighting cock. a1661Fuller 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. 1792H. Brooke Fool of Qual. II. 113 My adversaries, on all sides, are such cocks of the game. 1813Wellington in Gurw. Disp. X. 569 The Portuguese are now the fighting cocks of the army. 1826Cobbett Rur. Rides (1885) II. 107 [They] live like fighting-cocks upon the labour of the rest of the community. 1861Gen. 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’.
1789Loiterer 5 Sept. 10 This eloquent harangue was not lost upon me, I immediately began to smoke the old Gentleman. ‘No, (thought I) that cock won't fight.’ 1850Thackeray Pendennis lxvii, ‘Tell that to the marines, Major’, replied the valet, ‘that cock won't fight with me’. 1850Kingsley 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.
[c1386Chaucer Miller's T. 501 Whan that the firste cok hath crowe. ― Reeve's T. 313 Til that the thridde cok bigan to synge.] c1440Ipomydon 783 At the fryst cokke roose hee. 1525Jestes Widow Edith in Brand s.v. Cockcrow, I shall not lye, till after the first cok. 1573Tusser Husb. (1878) 166 [see the whole section]. 1605Shakes. Lear iii. iv. 121 This is the foule Flibbertigibbet; hee begins at Curfew, and walkes at firste Cocke. ― Macb. ii. iii. 27 We were carowsing till the second Cock. 1632Lithgow Trav. vii. 337 They sup'd, and were iouiall, and at the first Cocke went foorth to the woode. 1842Longfellow 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.
c1386Chaucer Nun's Pr. T. 457 Nothing ne list him thanne for to crow, But cried anon cok, cok, and up he sterte.
5. a. A figure of the bird mounted on a spindle, as a vane to turn with the wind; a weather-cock.
1605Shakes. Lear iii. ii. 3 You Cataracts, and Hyrricano's spout, Till you haue drench'd our Steeples, drown the Cockes. a1659Cleveland 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.
1626Bacon 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.
[1386Chaucer Prol. 823 Amorwe whan þat day gan for to sprynge Vp roos oure hoost and was oure aller cok.] 1614T. 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. 1871J. Larwood Bk. Clerical Anecd. 162 In the ages of ignorance the clergy frequently called themselves the Cocks of the Almighty.
7. a. 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.
1542N. 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. 1581Sidney Apol. Poetrie (Arb.) 43 Alexander and Darius, when they straue who should be Cocke of thys worlds dung-hill. 1652Shirley Brothers (N.), She may be cock o' twenty, nay, for aught I know, she is immortal. 1670Moral State Eng. 118 To be the Cock of all them with whom he converses. 1672Marvell Reh. Transp. i. 218 'Tis Sir Salomon's Sword, Cock of as many men as it hath been drawn against. 1695Cotton Epigr. of Martial 115 Hermes, Master of Fence, and Fencer too, The Cock and Terror of the Sword-men's Crew. 1711Addison Spect. No. 131 ⁋9 Sir Andrew is grown the Cock of the Club since he left us. 1729Swift Grand Question, At cuffs I was always the cock of the school. a1734North Life Ld. Guilford (1808) I. 68 (D.) The post, as they call it, of cock of the circuit. 1840Thackeray Catherine viii, He was the cock of the school out of doors, and the very last boy in. 1855Motley Dutch Rep. (1861) I. 253 In the states assembly they were then the cocks of the walk. 1876F. 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.
1513Douglas 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.
1639Massinger Unnat. Combat ii. i, He has drawn blood of him yet. Well done, old cock! 1684Bunyan 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. 1710Brit. Apollo III. No. 31. 3/2 The Young Cock cry'd I will Not meddle nor make. 1725Bailey 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. 1771Smollett Humph. Cl. I. 6 May, let. ii, The doctor being a shy cock. 1837Dickens Pickw. xliv, ‘Do you always smoke arter you goes to bed, old cock?’ 1842S. Lover Handy Andy iii, ‘That's right, my cock,’ said he to Murtough. 1937H. C. Bailey Clunk's Claimant xxxiv. 227 What's the game now? Passed to you. Tails up, old cock. 1942T. Rattigan Flare Path iii. 164 Good show, Count, old cock! 1965G. Melly Owning-up iv. 30 Smarten yourself up a bit, cock, before we go on!
III. Of other birds, etc.
9. a. The male of various other birds. See also attrib. uses in 21, cock-bird, cock-sparrow, etc.
c1325in Rel. Ant. I. 168 Fesant henne ant fesant cocke. 1393Langl. P. Pl. C. xiv. 172 And whan þe pocok caukede þer-of ich took kepe, How vn-corteisliche þe cok hus kynde forth strenede. c1420Liber Cocorum (1862) 36 Tho fesaunt kok, but not tho henne. c1475Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 762/26 Hic filicus, a telle cok. Hec filica, a telle hen. 1530Palsgr. 206/2 Cocke, a he byrde. 1576Fleming Panoplie Ep. 354 Pigeons bring foorth two egges, the first a cocke, the second a henne. 1870D. P. 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.
b. In names of birds, as black-cock, gor-cock, heath-cock, moor-cock, peacock, woodcock, etc., q.v.
c. Short for woodcock. Often attrib.
1530–1691 [implied in cockshoot]. 1741Compl. Fam.-Piece ii. i. 323 Seeking for Cocks or Snipes about Plashes. 1870D. P. 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; cock of the plains, a North American species of grouse; the sage-cock; cock of the rock, either of two species of the South American genus Rupicola of Cotingas.
1562J. 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. 1649Fuller Just Man's Fun. 29 A bird peculiar to Ireland, called the Cock of the Wood, remarkable for the fine flesh and follie thereof. 1678Ray Willughby's Ornith. 172 Capercaillie, Tetrao urogallus, The cock of the mountain or wood. 1772Forster Hudson's Bay Birds in Phil. Trans. LXII. 395 The great cock of the wood is as big as a turkey. 1805M. Lewis in Jrnls. Lewis & Clark Exped. (1904) II. 384 Capt. C. killed a cock of the plains or mountain cock. It was of a dark brown colour with a long and pointed tail. 1807Sir 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. 1825C. Waterton Wanderings S. Amer. iv. 301 The..Cock of the Rock would be in fine plumage from..November to May. 1837Swainson Classif. Birds II. 76 Rupicola, or rock manakin of Cayenne. The familiar name of cock of the rock, long bestowed on this bird, is very characteristic. 1838Audubon Ornith. Biogr. IV. 503 Cock of the Plains. 1877R. I. Dodge Hunting Grounds Gt. West 224 ‘Cock of the plains.’ Tetrao (centrocercus) urophasianus. 1882Proc. Berw. Nat. Club IX. 504 The Brambling, or Cock of the North, was rather a rare winter visitor. 1885Stand. Nat. Hist. IV. 209 The sage-cock, or cock-of-the-plains, Centrocercus urophasianus, is the largest grouse found in America. 1917E. H. Forbush in T. G. Pearson Birds Amer. II. 29 Sage Hen..Cock of the Plains..exceeds all other Grouse in size, with the possible exception of the great Black Grouse.. of Europe. 1949Oxf. Jun. Encycl. II. 84/1 The Cock-of-the rock..is a fairly large bird, coloured bright orange-red, with a large, circular crest growing from each side of the head.
11. blue, harvest, salmon cock: local names of a salmon in one of its stages.
1677Johnson 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. 1861Act 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 connexion of some of these with this word is doubtful.]
12. a. 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.
1481–90Howard Househ. Bks. (1844) 353 Item, to a founder for mendyng of the kok viijd. 1580Baret 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. 1593Rites & 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. 1596Harington Metam. Ajax (1814) 7 To which pipe you must have a cock or washer to yield water with some pretty strength. 1607Shakes. Timon ii. ii. 171, I haue retyr'd me to a wastefull cocke, And set mine eyes at flow. 1611Coryat Crudities 29 Artificiall rocks most curiously contrived by the very quintessence of art with fine water spowting out of the cocks. 1611Cotgr., 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. 1621Quarles Argalus & P. (1678) 64 Beneath, a rocky Cistern did retain The water, sliding through the cocks of Cane. 1654Warren Unbelievers 28 Unlesse faith be the conduit-pipe, and cock to conveigh this water. 1655Marquis of Worcester Cent. Inv. §68 To turn two Cocks, that one Vessel of water being consumed, another begins to..re-fill. 1679Plot 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[see cock-a-hoop, Etymol]. 1727Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Distilling, The Vessel has a Channel, through which the Water incontinently runs by loosening the Cock. 1743R. 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. 1833Act 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.
1622T. Stoughton Chr. Sacrif. viii. 97 Whereby we turne the cocke of this conduit, and so draw the water of life. 1728Pope Dunc. ii. 170 Thus the small jett which hasty hands unlock Spirts in the gardner's eyes who turns the cock. 1884Pall Mall G. 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. (Connexion with It. cocca notch (of an arrow) appears to be unproved.)
1566Earl of 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. 1590Sir 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. 1599Shakes. Hen. V, ii. i. 55 Pistols cocke is vp, and flashing fire will follow. 1613Voy. Guiana in Harl. Misc. (Malh.) III. 186 Had their match in cock ready to discharge. 1660Boyle New Exp. Phys. Mech. xiv. 89 The Cock falling with its wonted violence upon the Steel, struck out of it..many..parts of Fire. 1685Lond. Gaz. No. 2045/4 Left in an Hackney Coach on Tuesday 23d Instant, a pair of Pistols with each two Cocks and one Barril. 1711Mil. & Sea Dict. (ed. 4), The Cock half bent; Is the usual standing of it, when neither cock'd nor quite down. 1809Wellington 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.
d. 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 n., from the verb.]
1745Desaguliers Nat. Philos. I. 108 The gun being at Half-Cock, the Spring acts upon the Tumbler with more Advantage. 1837Disraeli Corr. w. Sister 21 Nov. (1886) 75 H. Liddell..flushed with his Durham triumph, had been at half-cock all day. a1845Hood Ghost xv, Off he went, Like fowling-piece at cock! 1861W. H. Russell in Times 29 July, In one stack I saw muskets on full cock, on half-cock, and with hammers on the nipple. 1873B. Stewart Conserv. Force vi. 159 A rifle at full cock, with a delicate hair-trigger, is a very good instance.
†14. Part of a plough as formerly made. Obs.
1523Fitzherb. 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. 1790W. Marshall Midl. Count. Gloss. (E.D.S.) Cock, a species of draft-iron of a plow. See Clevvy. 1819Rees 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. a. The pointer, needle, or tongue of a balance.
1611Cotgr., Brayette..the tryall, tongue, or cocke, of a Ballance. 1708–15Kersey, Cock, the Needle of a Ballance. 1833J. 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.
1613R. C. Table Alph. (ed. 3), Gnomen, the stile, or cock of a diall. 1656W. Dugard Gate Lat. Unl. §463. 133 Sun⁓dials, when the shadow of the Cock by passing over the lines of the hours..show the stay of the time sliding by. 1708J. Smith Horol. Disquis. 30 A large Dial made with a double Cock, that is with two Cocks of the same size fixed together. 1823G. 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.
1678Lond. Gaz. No. 1286/4 A round small Silver Watch..with a steel Chain..a brass Cock, an endless Screw. 1696Derham Artif. Clockm. 4 The wrought piece which covers the Ballance, and in which the upper Pevet of the Ballance plays, is the Cock. 1798Trans. Soc. Arts XVI. 307 The cock screwed to the potance plate. 1884F. 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.
1627Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. v. 19 Shiuers..is a little Wheele fixed in the middest with a Cocke or Pin. 1678Phillips, 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. 1768E. Buys Dict. Terms Art s.v. Cocks, (on Ship-board).
18. The mark at which curlers aim.
1787Burns Tam Samson's Elegy iv, When to the lochs the curlers flock..Wha will they station at the cock? Tam Samson's dead! 1815Scott 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. Hence (esp. spoken) nonsense, an unfounded statement. Freq. in phr. to talk cock. Cf. poppycock.
1851Mayhew Lond. Labour I. 214 Getting rid of what are technically termed ‘cocks’; which, in polite language, means accounts of fabulous duels, etc. 1860Sala Boddington Peerage (Hoppe), News of the apocryphal nature known as ‘cocks’. 1937C. Day Lewis Starting Point iii. 52 ‘If I hadn't let Mackenzie through that time, we'd have won.’ ‘Don't talk cock. You played a damned good game.’ 1948‘N. Shute’ No Highway 286 I've never heard such cock in all my life. 1956L. McIntosh Oxford Folly 76 What he usually improvised was just a load of cock. 1967L. Deighton Expensive Place ii. 16 What a lot of cock.
20. = Penis: Ger. hahn, hähnchen.
(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.)
1618N. Field Amends for Ladies 1, Oh man what art thou? When thy cock is up? 1714Cabinet of Love, View my sore cock, his tender wounded head. 1730–36in Bailey (Folio). 1737tr. Rabelais I. 185 note. [So in ed. 1807(Longmans, etc.) I. 169, and ed. 1849(Bohn) I. 135.] 1967A. S. Byatt Game xvii. 233 Guts and cock and all,..every little bit except the hair and teeth. 1969Landfall XXIII. 107 ‘She had her hand on his cock.’ ‘There's no need to be crude.’
V. attrib. and Comb.
21. attrib. In sense of ‘male’:
a. of birds.
1555Eden Decades W. Ind. i. i. (Arb.) 67 Cocke chikyns. 1577B. 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. 1626Bacon Sylva (1677) §239 Cock-birds, among Singing-birds, are ever the better singers. 1760Edwards Acc. Bird in Phil. Trans. LI. 836 Produced from a turkey-hen and a cock-pheasant. 1842Penny Cycl. XXIII. 144/1 Each cock-bird [ostrich] will have its fair share of incubation. 1888Pall Mall G. 1 Feb. 4/2 A sympathetic ‘cock fowl’ singing as best he can.
b. more generally.
1632Brome Northern Lass i. v, Are you the Cock-bawd to the Hen was here? 1676Shadwell Virtuoso i. i, To see a cock-lobster dissected. c1690B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Cock-oyster, the Male. Ibid., Cock-pimp, a supposed Husband to a Bawd. 1865J. G. Bertram Harvest of 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.
a. Chief, leading; ‘crack’: often with the notion of swaggering, assuming the highest place.
1628Ford Lover's Melanch. v. i, Oh, thou cock-vermin of iniquity! 1672Marvell Reh. Transp. i. 64 The Cock-Divine and the Cock-Wit of the Family. 1687Shadwell Juvenal Ded. A iij b, I will not say as a Cock Translator does of Lucretius. 1690Crowne Eng. Frier i. i. 4 The cock-drinker, cock-fighter, and cock-wencher o' Christendom. 1693Tate in Dryden's Juvenal (1697) 28 A Cock-Zealot of this preaching crew. 1826Cobbett Rur. Rides (1885) II. 260 A big white house, occupied by one Goodlad, who was a cock justice of the peace. 1865Pall Mall G. 11 July 3/2 The cock attorney of the place.
b. Highest in position, most prominent, chief.
See cock-feather, and cock-mate.
1651Cartwright Cert. Relig. I. 15 Hudled up together in a rick with one cock-sheave above the rest. 1909Daily Chron. 2 Aug. 1/6 The opinion that Natal was ‘cock ship’ among a crowd of extraordinarily efficient battleships and cruisers. 1926Spectator 11 Sept. 375/2 She carried the golden cock at her masthead as cock ship of the Mediterranean Fleet.
23. Comb., as cock-bag, cock-feeder, cock-feeding, cock-house, cock-main, cock-pen, cock-shears, cock-walk; cock-rumped, cock-trodden ppl. adjs.; cock-and-hen, applied attrib. to anything which admits or includes both sexes; cock-and-hen-paddle (see cock-paddle); cock-brass = cock-metal; cock-bread, specially prepared food for fighting-cocks; cock-founder, -founding (see quot. 1931); cock-schnapper, snapper, a small snapper (see snapper n.1 7); † 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-stand [cock n.1 20] coarse slang, an erection of the penis; † cock-stele, a stick to throw at a cock at Shrovetide (see cock-throwing); cocksucker coarse slang, a fellator; freq. used as a generalized term of abuse; so cock-sucking ppl. adj.; cock-teaser coarse slang, a sexually provocative woman who evades or refuses intercourse; hence (as back-formation) cock-tease v. trans.; cock-teasing ppl. a.; † cock-thrashing (cf. sense 2); cock-watch (see quot. and 16).
1785[see hen n. 5]. 1889Referee 19 May (Ware), What are described as working men's clubs.., very early breakfast clubs, *cock-and-hen clubs..are all flagrant and distinct violations of the Licensing Acts. 1925W. Deeping Sorrell & Son xxiii, It was a cock and hen affair, but more hen than cock. 1952R. Sherbrooke-Walker Khaki & Blue iii. 25 It seemed strange at first to be in a ‘cock and hen’ mess.
1611Markham Country Content. i. xix. (1668) 87 Stow your Cock in a *Cock-bag.
1834–43Southey Doctor clxiv. (D.), You feed us with *cock-bread and arm us with steel spurs.
1626Raleigh'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. a1825Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Cock's-egg, an abortive egg, without a yolk. 1883C. S. 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.
1834Sport. Mag. Nov., The most celebrated *cock-feeder England ever produced.
1870D. P. Blaine Encycl. Rur. Sports §4001 *Cock feeding and training are words of synonymous import.
1807European Mag. Dec., List of Bankrupts from June 20 to Dec. 26, 1807 Higginbottom, W...*Cock-founder. 1838Civ. Engin. & Archit. Jrnl. I. 381/2 Why cock-founders make the cocks with three different capacities of orifice,..is another secret. 1931N. & Q. 17 Jan. 50/2 A cock-founder is a maker of metal (usually brass or gun-metal) cocks or taps. Cock-founding is one of the very many trades carried on in Birmingham.
1879G. F. Jackson Shropsh. Wd.-bk., *Cockhead, the top part of the spindle which carries the upper mill-stone in a flour-mill.
1616Surfl. & Markh. Country Farm 670 The *cocke-house where hee shall keepe his fighting cockes and hennes. 1677W. Hubbard Narrative ii. 71 While himself searching about farther found three Guns hid in a Cox-house.
1795Southey Lett. fr. Spain (1799) 79 At midnight they all went to *Cock-mass.
1876Grant 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.
1569J. Sandford tr. Agrippa's Van. Artes 72 b, For who is that whiche seethe a man go with a *cocke pase.
1753Ess. 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. 1875New Quarterly Mag. July 501 The refuge of cockpecked woman.
1611Markham Country Content. i. xix. (1668) 86 Of the *Cock-Pen. This pen should be made of very close boards.
1712Lond. Gaz. No. 5037/15 Lost..a Bay brown Gelding..a little *Cock-rumpt.
1882J. E. Tenison-Woods Fish of N.S.W. 41 The schnapper or count-fish, the school-fish, and squire... Juveniles rank the smallest of the fry, not over an inch or two in length, as the *cock-schnapper.
1828A. E. Bray Protestant viii. (1884) 75 Not a bear-ward, nor a *cock-setter, nor a sticker of bills..but will give thee a character.
1611Markham Country Content. i. xix. (1668) 90 With a pair of fine *cock shears you shall cut all his main off.
1867Rosa Fielding in S. Marcus Other Victorians (1966) v. 227 He had a tremendous *cock-stand, and felt that if it was not allayed pretty quickly that he must burst. c1888–94My Secret Life I. 57 Then I began to have cock-stands. 1967A. Wilson No Laughing Matter iii. 367 Marcus..found, as his eyes took in the young man's flirtatious glance, that he was beginning a cock-stand.
a1535More in Roper Life (ed. Singer) 187, I am called childhood: in play is all my mynde, To cast a coyte, a *cockstele, and a ball. 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.
1891Farmer Slang II. 144/1 *Cock-sucker, a fellatrix. 1935J. T. Farrell Guillotine Party 253 ‘You know what I am?’ he asked, as if in self-torture. ‘Yes,’ Jack said casually. ‘I'm a c..........’ 1962J. Baldwin Another Country (1963) ii. iii. 271 If it wasn't for the spooks wouldn't a damn one of you white cock suckers ever get laid. 1969P. Roth Portnoy's Complaint 116 My father said ‘No’ to one after another of the thousand little accesories the cock-sucker wanted to sell us.
1923E. E. Cummings Let. 28 July (1969) 99 Being members..of the *cocksucking leisure class. 1969C. Himes Blind Man with Pistol xxi. 226 Mother-raping cocksucking turdeating bastard, are you blind?
1957A. Wilson Bit off Map 71 You think..that because you have attractive eyes and a good figure that you can go on having sex appeal just by *cock-teasing every man you meet.
1891Farmer Slang II. 144/2 *Cock-teaser or cockchafer, a girl in the habit of permitting all familiarities but the last. 1962J. Baldwin Another Country (1963) i. i. 50 What are you, anyway—just a cock-teaser? 1968T. E. B. Clarke Trail of Serpent vii. 67 The sixth commandment hadn't been broken in his manor since a Polish farm labourer strangled a cock-teasing Sunday hiker.
1409Proclam. in H. T. Riley Lond. Mem. (1868) 571 The games called ‘fote⁓balle’ and *‘cokthresshyng’.
1589Fleming Virg. Georg. iii. 46 note, Hens prooue with eg sometimes, though they be not *cocktrodden.
c1450Bk. Hawking in Rel. Ant. I. 305 Take a *cokke torde soden in vinegre.
1879I. 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).
▸ cock-block v. coarse slang (chiefly U.S., orig. in African-American usage) intr. and trans. to impede the romantic or sexual advances of a person (usually a man) towards another.
1972E. A. Folb Compar. Study Urban Black Argot Mar. 135 *Cock block, to interfere with a male's attempt to ‘win over’ a female. 1989T. McMillan Disappearing Acts xv. 234 The men in this business sure know how to cock-block. 2002Village Voice 23 July 12/3 [He] tried to get fresh with them on the dancefloor. But Melissa..cock-blocked him. 2005LA Weekly (Nexis) 23 Dec. 102 Her bodyguard cock-blocking dudes at every turn.
▸ cock-blocker n. coarse slang (orig. and chiefly U.S.) a person who cock-blocks.
J. Lighter Hist. Dict. Amer. Slang (1994) I. 445/2 records an oral use from 1971.
1996Re: Sick of watching 13th Steppers in alt.recover.aa (Usenet newsgroup) 19 Feb., I think I'm what they call a *cockblocker. 2001Rolling Stone (Electronic ed.) 11 Oct. 50 We're blocking the cock-blocker. 2004R. Byrnes Trust Fund Boys 272 You're compounding things by..being a cock-blocker.
▸ cock rock n. slang rock music, esp. heavy metal, characterized by the ostentatious male sexuality of its lyrics and performance.
1971M. Saunders in Creem May 74/2 As much as I hate heavy music—*cock rock, macho rock, or whatever the current name for it is—I have to admit to having every Blue Cheer album ever made. 2003Kitchen Sink Winter 19/1 [Led Zeppelin] truly were the creators of ‘cock rock’, in the hyper-masculine sexuality of their sound, their songs and in the presentation of their actual packages, which were often practically visible through their tight-ass bell bottoms.
cock rocker n.
1977Creem July 50/3 I can't help but wonder if part of their popularity is due to the fact that they're the last of an era of *cock rockers who play dirty and, if you'll excuse the expression, ‘chauvinistic’ rock 'n' roll. 2002Independent on Sunday 10 Feb. 3/1 It's big enough to mean that..student bands don't play there and small enough to deter cock-rockers on the enormo-barn circuit.
▪ II. cock, n.2|kɒk|
Also 5 cok, 5–6 cocke.
[First known in 15th c. Agrees in form and sense with dial. Ger. kocke masc. heap of hay, also of dung; Norw. kok m. heap in general, esp. of dung, but also still more generally ‘lump’: cf. ON. kökkr lump (snæ-kökkr snow-ball), Sw. koka fem. clod, clot. It is uncertain whether the narrower or the wider sense is the primitive: see Grimm s.v. (Connexion with the stem of Ger. kug-el, Du. kog-el ‘ball’, has been suggested.)
In the Dictionnaire du Patois Normand, départem. de l'Eure (1879) it is said, haycocks are generally called villottes; but about Berville (a little south of Rouen) a villotte of the smallest size, in which the hay is put up the first day, is called une coque, from its resemblance to the rounded shape of an egg-shell (coque). This may be the same word: the derivation offered is, of course, questionable.]
A conical heap of produce or material. a. of hay (rarely corn) in the field. Cf. hay-cock.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. lxxii. (1495) 646 Heye is..gadered and made of hepes in to cockes. 1470Harding Chron. clxxiii. ii. 6 [He] laye there with great power..among the hay cockes bushed. 1483Cath. Angl. 71 A Cok of hay or of corne. 1577B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. i. (1586) 45 b, When it [grass] is dryed, we lay it in wind rowes and then make it up in Cockes, and after that in Moowes. 1679Blount Anc. Tenures 131 To find one Man to make Cocks or Ricks of Hay. 1718Gay in Pope's Lett. 9 Aug., A cock of barley in our next field has been consumed to ashes. c1750W. Ellis in Old C. & Farm. Wds. (E.D.S.) s.v. Hay-making, The same day..it may be..put into grass-cocks. The second day we..put it into bastard-cocks, that are as big again as grass-cocks. The third day..we cock it up into heaps. 1824W. Irving T. Trav. I. 220 Lying on the cocks of new-mown hay. 1882F. P. Verney in Contemp. Rev. XLII. 965 The corn was put up temporarily in little round cocks of about fifty sheaves.
b. of dung, wood, turf, etc.
1570Levins Manip. 158/10 A cocke of dung, collis. 1693Evelyn De la Quint. Compl. Gard. II. 167 Stacks or large Cocks of the mouldiest Dung, to raise Mushrooms on. 1743Lond. & Country Brew. iii. (ed. 2) 175 Oak..they lay up in great Piles or Cocks to dry. 1881Times 14 Jan. 6/6 The burning of what was called in Ireland ‘a cock of turf’.
▪ III. † cock, n.3 Obs.
Also 5 cok, 6 cokke, 6–8 cocke.
[The compound cokbote varied in 15th c. with cogbote; and cokke, cocke itself agreed with one sense of cog; it is thus probable that the Eng. cogge, cocke, represented the Fr. variants cogue, coque: see cog n.1 There was, however, more differentiation of the two forms in English than in French, for we have no trace of cock applied to the large vessels, cog sense 1; rather has cock always corresponded in sense to the Fr. diminutive coquet.
The Vocab. della Crusca has It. cocca ‘a kind of ship, no longer in use, which had the prow and the poop much raised, with a single mast, and a square sail’; dim. cocchetta. Of the similar Celtic words, Thurneysen says Ir. & Gaelic coca boat is the Romanic word; Welsh cwch is manifestly an old borrowed word; Cornish coc, pl. cucu, ‘boat’ is the Rom.-Eng. cock, and Breton koket, koked is the OFr. dim. coquet.]
A small ship's boat. Now always cock-boat.
1430–63[in comb. in cockboat, cockswain]. 1509Will of Burgeys (Somerset Ho.), To Cristofer..a cokke to rowe yn. 1558W. Tourson in Hakluyt (1589) 123 I tooke our cocke and the Tygers skiffe, and went to the Island. 1569T. Stocker Diodorus Sic. iii. xi. 122 Then the Tounssmen fraughte their cockes with drie wood and such like stuffe, and.. cast fire into the shippes. 1605Shakes. Lear iv. vi. 19 Yond tall Anchoring Barke, Diminish'd to her Cocke: her Cocke, a Buoy. 1631Chettle Hoffman (N.), I caused my lord to leap into the cock. [1774E. Jacob Faversham 80 No tenant shall have above one Cocke to dredge and use in the river.]
▪ IV. † cock, n.4 Obs. rare.
[In OE. sǽcoccas ‘sea-cocks’ (cf. F. coque marine), cocc, perh. ad. L. *cocca by-form of concha; in ME. a. F. coque shell, of same origin: cf. cockle n.2]
Cockle, shell-fish.
c1000ælfric Colloq. in Wr.-Wülcker 94 Muscula, muslan, torniculi, pinewinclan, Nepticgalli sæcoccas, platesia, fage. 1393Langl. P. Pl. C. x. 95 [A] ferthyng-worth of muscles..oþer so fele Cockes [so 3 MSS.; v.r. cokkys, cokeles]. 1661R. Lovell Hist. Animals 189 Cocks, and Cokles..being of so hot a nature that they fly above the water like an arrow, in the summer nights.
▪ V. † cock, n.5 Obs. rare—1.
[f. cock v.1 1: perh. at cocke is the northern infinitive, but cf. the Latin.]
War, strife.
a1300E.E. Psalter cxliii. 1 Blessid Laverd mi God, þat leres right Mi hende at cocke [L. ad prœlium], mi fingres at fight.
▪ VI. cock, n.6|kɒk|
[f. cock v.1 3–5.]
1. A pronounced upward turn; an upward bend (of the nose, etc.); a significant turn (of the eye).
1824Scott St. Ronan's iii, They were collected ‘viis et modis’ said the Man of Law..with a knowing cock of his eye to his next neighbour. 1843Fraser's Mag. XXVIII. 694 My nose had lost its pretty cock, and had grown elegantly hooked.
2. A way of cocking a hat on the head.
1717Bullock Wom. a Riddle ii. 21, I have an inimitable cock with my hat that adds a vivacity to my looks. 1840Thackeray Catherine ix, A fierce cock to his hat, and a shabby genteel air.
3. An upward turn given to the brim of a hat; a mode of so turning it up; concr. the turned-up part of the brim.
1711Steele Spect. No. 104 ⁋2 He..wore in a smart Cock, a little Beaver hat edged with Silver. 1712Budgell ibid. No. 319 ⁋5 The Variety of Cocks into which he moulded his Hat. 1726Cavallier Mem. i. 80 Putting..a Tuft of white Ribands in the Cocks of their Hats. 1785Boswell Tour Hebrides 9 Oct. 1773 The wind being high, he let down the cocks of his hat. 1822T. Bewick Mem. 44 He had..the cocks of his hat shot through and through.
†4. ‘A kind of cap, or head-dress’ (Jamieson); cf. cock-up. Sc. Obs.
1768Ross Poems 137 (Jam.) And we maun hae pearlins, and mabbies, and cocks.
▪ VII. cock, n.7
[f. cock v.2]
A cocked position of the hammer of a pistol or gun: see cock n.1 13.
▪ VIII. † cock, n.8 Obs. or arch.
Perversion of the word god (an intermediate form being gock), used in oaths and forcible exclamations, as by cock, cock and pie; but generally in the possessive, as cock's body, cock's bones, cock's heart, cock's nouns, cock's pain, cock's passion, cock's soul, etc.
c1386Chaucer Manciple's Prol. 9 See how for Cokkes bones [v.r. kokes bones, goddes bones] As he wol falle fro his hors atones. c1460Towneley Myst. 150 By Cokes dere bonys I mak you go wyghtly. c1465E.E. Misc. (Warton Club) 44 By cokkus soule, There is an haare in my haye. 1530Palsgr. 739/1 Stryke for cockes body. c1530Hickscorner in Hazl. Dodsley I. 188 Cock's death, whom have we here? 1535Lyndesay Satyre 2841 War I ane King, sir, be coks passioun! I sould gar make ane proclamatioun. a1553Udall Royster D. i. ii. (Arb.) 18 By cocke, thou sayest truthe. 1567Trial Treas. in Hazl. Dodsley III. 297 Ah! Cock's precious sides, what fortune is this! 1613–6W. Browne Brit. Past. i. iv, Then swore by Cocke and other dung-hill oathes. 1633B. Jonson Tale Tub iii. ii, Cock's bodikins! we must not lose John Clay. 1676D'Urfey Mad. Fickle i. i. (1677) 3 What Mr. Harry! By Coxbodikins I did not know you. 1719― Pills III. 14 By Cock, quoth he, Say you so. 1828Scott F.M. Perth viii, Cocksbody, make that manifest to me. 1851Longfellow Gold. Leg. iii. Nativ. viii, Come, Aleph, Beth; dost thou forget? Cock's soul! thou'dst rather play!
▪ IX. [cock, n.9
Johnson (copied in later Dicts.) has the sense ‘The notch of an arrow’, which he probably found in Ainsworth's Thesaurus (1746 ―) ‘The cock of an arrow, Sagittæ crena’. No evidence has been found for such a sense: it appears to be an etymological figment founded on Skinner's conjecture that ‘cock of a gun’ (cock n.1 13) was a term originally proper to Archery, and identical with It. cocca ‘the nocke of an arrow’ (Florio).]
▪ X. cock, v.1|kɒk|
Formerly also cokke.
[Here are included a number of separate uses, which appear all to be derived, in one way or another, from the name of the fowl. Even this derivation, however, is somewhat doubtful for the earliest sense, which has been conjecturally compared with Irish cog-aim ‘I war, I make war’, stem in OIr. coc-.]
I.
†1. intr. To contend, fight, wrangle, quarrel. Also in 16th c. to cock it. Obs.
c1230[see cocking vbl. n.]. a1275Prov. Alfred 668 in O.E. Misc. 138 Þe luttele mon..wole grennen, cocken, and chiden. c1300Pol. Songs (1839) 133 To cocke with knyf nast thou none nede. a1400–50Alexander 2042 Fra morne to þe mirke niȝt maynly þa cocken. a1577Sir T. Smith Orat. iii. App. to Life (L.), And if they be both disposed to cock it throughly, yet when they both be made bankrupts, then they must needs conclude a peace. 1600Abp. Abbot Exp. Jonah 612 He who should have been mild to men, is now cocking with God.
II.
2. To play the ‘cock’, behave boastfully or defiantly; to swagger, strut; to brag, crow over. Also trans. with up.
1575Abp. Parker Corr. 246 Our circumspections so variable..maketh cowards thus to cock over us. 1556J. Heywood Spider & F. xliii. 17 The spider and fly, that erst there bragde and cockt. 1650Arnway Alarum (1661) 161 (L.) Belshazzar was found..cocking up against God. 1682Southerne Loyal Brother v. i, I'll strut, and cock, and talk as big, as wind and froth can make me. 1712Steele Spect. No. 422 ⁋2 A young Officer, who gave Symptoms of cocking upon the Company. 1713Guardian (1756) II. No. 108. 103 Every one cocks and struts upon it, and pretends to overlook us. 1914Joyce Dubliners 146 The mother you know, she cocks him up with this and that. 1947D. M. Davin Gorse blooms Pale 38 A dog with boys for master has no master. They'll always cock him up and end by spoiling him. 1958L. A. G. Strong Light above Lake 106 Don't cock the fella up.
III. To stick or turn up.
3. a. trans. To set up assertively or obtrusively; to turn up in an assertive, pretentious, jaunty, saucy, or defiant way; to stick stiffly up or out. [app. with reference to the posture of a cock's neck in crowing, or that of his crest or his tail.] to cock the ears: to prick up the ears in attention, interest, etc., said of horses, dogs, and humorously of persons. to cock the nose: to turn it up in contempt or indifference. to cock the eye: to turn the eye with a knowing look; to give a wink. to cock snooks, cock a snook: see snooks.
c1600Day Begg. Bednell Gr. ii. ii. in Bullen O. Pl. (1881) 39 Your bought Gentility that sits on thee Like Peacock's feathers cock't upon a Raven. 1672Marvell Reh. Transp. i. 161 [She] spreads and cocks her tail. 1712Addison Spect. No. 275 ⁋8 The Latin Poets, when they talk of a Man's cocking his Nose, or playing the Rhinoceros. 1720Gay Pastorals (J.), Our Lightfoot barks, and cocks his ears. 1751Smollett Per. Pic. (1779) I. ii. 15 To use the vulgar phrase, he cocked his eye at him. 1785Grose Dict. Vulgar Tongue, Cock your eye, shut one eye. 1790Burns Elegy Henderson iii, Ye hills..That proudly cock your cresting cairns! 1804Wolcott (P. Pindar) Ep. Ld. Mayor Wks. 1812 V. 204 He cocks his nose upon disgrace. 1828Scott F.M. Perth xxvii, The wisest Captain that ever cocked the sweet gale (bog-myrtle) in his bonnet. 1836Marryat Japhet iv, Timothy put on his hat, cocked his eye at me, and left us alone. 1863Kingsley Water-bab. iii, He cocked up his head, and he cocked up his wings, and he cocked up his tail. 1879Punch 10 May 213 Cocked my laughing eye, and shot a glance at her out of it.
b. intr. To stand, or stick conspicuously up.
1629Gaule Holy Madnesse 91 His Beuer cocks. 1650R. Stapylton Strada's Low C. Warres vii. 79 The Spanish Souldiers..would..put their Helmets upon faggot-sticks, so as they might be seen but to cock above the Workes. 1697Lond. Gaz. No. 3319/4 She carries her Tail cocking. 1787Best Angling (ed. 2) 168 Floats..must be so poised..as to make them cock, that is, stand perpendicular in the water. 1857Livingstone Trav. xxviii. 569 The little saucy-looking heads cocking up between the old one's ears.
c. To bend (a limb, joint, etc.) at an angle.
1898in Eng. Dial. Dict. I. 683/2 Put y'r left foot into the stirrup, and cock y'r other leg into the saddle, and off ye go. 1974Mills & Butler Tackle Badminton iii. 34 Your wrist should be cocked back more. 1984L. Alther Other Women (1985) ii. vi. 237 ‘Dessert?’ asked the waitress, cocking one hip and resting a hand on it.
4. to cock the hat: ‘to set up the hat with an air of petulance and pertness’ (J.); ‘a common mode of vulgar salutation’ (Halliwell). Now, to stick the hat jauntily on one side of the head.
1651Baxter Inf. Bapt. 148 He went up and down London Streets with his Hat cockt, his teeth gnashing, his eyes fixed. 1691Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) II. 204 Behaving themselves indecently as her majestie past by, looking her in the face and cocking their hats. 1712Addison Spect. No. 403 ⁋5, I saw an alerte young fellow that cocked his hat upon a friend of his who entered. 1729Swift Grand Question debated 105 The Captain, to show he is proud of the favour, Looks up to your window, and cocks up his beaver; (His beaver is cock'd; pray, Madam, mark that, For a captain of horse never takes off his hat). 1840Dickens Barn. Rudge lix, Said Dennis, cocking his hat for the convenience of scratching his head. 1842S. Lover Handy Andy xxi, The mother thought Murphy would be a good speculation for the daughter to cock her cap at. 1852R. S. Surtees Sponge's Sp. Tour v. 19 A fancy forage cap, cocked jauntily over a profusion of well-waxed curls.
5. a. To turn up the brim of (a hat), esp. as a fashion of wearing it; cf. cocked hat.
1663Pepys Diary 13 July, Mrs. Stewart in this dresse, with her hat cocked and a red plume. 1665Boyle Occas. Refl. iv. xix. (1675) 279 He took up with his Hat, which by Cocking the Brims he turn'd into a kind of Cup, such a proportion of Water that he quench'd his Thirst with it. 1766Goldsm. Vic. W. xii, Cocking his hat with pins. 1824D'Israeli Cur. Lit., Lit. Fashions, The same caprice that cuts our coats and cocks our hats. 1858Hawthorne Fr. & It. Jrnls. I. 81 Wolsey's hat..apparently was never cocked, as the fashion now is.
b. intr. and absol.
1672Wycherley Love in Wood ii. iv, Say your hat did not cock handsomely. 1699Garth Dispens. i. (1730) 147 So spruce he moves, so gracefully he cocks; The hollow'd Rose declares him Orthodox.
6. With up: to bungle or mess up (a situation, task, etc.); to spoil, to ruin. Cf. cock-up n. 4. slang.
1948Partridge Dict. Forces' Slang 44 Cock up, to make a mess of anything. 1967W. Pine Protectors xxi. 173 I've cocked up a little job... An almighty cock-up. 1983G. Swift Waterland xxxi. 206 I'm sorry I messed up your classes, sir. I'm sorry I cocked things up for you.
IV.
7. intr. ‘To train or use fighting cocks’ (J.).
1546–1886 [see cocking vbl. n. 2].
8. To shoot wood-cocks.
1696–1870 [see cocking vbl. n. 3].
▪ XI. cock, v.2
[f. cock n.1 13.]
†1. To place (a match) in the cock of an old matchlock gun. Also fig. Obs.
1598Barret Theor. Warres ii. i. 17 To cocke his burning match. Ibid. iii. i. 41 Hauing..made themselues ready, and cocked their matches. 1645Roxb. Ballads VI. 282 Cock your match, prim[e] your pan, let piercing bullets fly! 1648Petition Eastern Assoc. 21 Hot disputes already lighted, and cock'd between the two Kingdoms.
2. To put (a loaded fire-arm) in readiness for firing by raising the cock or hammer; to draw (the cock) back. to full cock, half cock: cf. cock n.1 13 b. Also absol.
1649Milton Eikon. 23 Pistols cockt and menac'd in the hands of about 300 Ruffians. 1660Boyle New Exp. Phys. Mech. xiv. 88 We took a Pistol..and..prim'd it with..Gunpowder..then cocking it, etc. 1719De Foe Crusoe (1840) I. xvi. 280 He sees me cock and present. 1812Byron Waltz ii, A modern hero..Cock'd—fired—and miss'd his man. 1847Infantry Man. (1854) 111 Cock the rifle. 1875‘Stonehenge’ Brit. Sports i. i. xi. 44 A gun..which opens and full-cocks with a most convenient lever under the trigger⁓guard.
▪ XII. cock, v.3 Carpentry.
[A technical word of most uncertain form, occurring also as cauk, caulk, calk, and recently cog, and prob. the same as coak. If the historical form is (as in quot. 1663) cock, *cok, it may represent a North Fr. *cok-er, *coqu-er = F. cocher to notch, fit with a notch or notches, f. coche, Pr. coca, It. cocca notch, ‘a dent cut in any thing’. Of this, coak, cauk might be phonetic variants, spelt caulk, calk, by association with better known words. See also cog n.3]
1. trans. To let the end of (a beam) into a wall-plate, or other supporting timber, by cutting the bearing end into steppings or a dove-tail, to fit into corresponding notches cut in the plate or supporting timber. Hence cocking vbl. n.
1663Gerbier Counsel 43 To see the Carpenters cock the main Beams into the Lentals, to hold the wall the better. 1703T. N. City & C. Purch. 30 The Beam is cauked down [which is the same as Dove-tailing a Cross]. 1819Nicholson Arch. Dict. I. 262 Cocking..securing beams to wall-plates by notching each beam..on the under edge..and cutting reverse notches out of the top of the wall-plate. 1823― Pract. Builder 129, Cocking or Cogging. 1876Gwilt Encycl. Archit. Gloss., Caulking or Cocking, the mode of fixing the tie-beams of a roof or the binding joists of a floor down to the wall-plates.
2. To secure a piece of timber having a projecting tenon across another having a corresponding notch or mortice; to secure crossing beams by any device of the nature or effect of mortice and tenon.
1854in Arch. Soc. Dict., Caulking, Calking, Cocking, Cogging, or Corking. 1874Knight Dict. Mech., Cocking..Mortising.
3. See coak v.
▪ XIII. cock, v.4
Also 4 coke.
[f. cock n.2]
trans. (and absol.) To put up (hay, etc.) in cocks.
1393Langl. P. Pl. C. vi. 13 Canstow..coke [v.r. coken] for my cokers [v.r. cokares, cokerus] oþer to þe cart picche? Ibid. xxii. 238 And somme he tauhte to tulye, to theche and to coke. 1573Tusser Husb. (1878) 118 Take heede to the weather, the wind and the skie, If danger approcheth, then ‘Cock apace’ crie. 1624Althorp MS. in Simpkinson Washingtons Introd. 57 To Gardner (and 10 others) 4 daies moying and one daie cocking brakes. 1679Plot Staffordsh. (1686) 353 They bind and cock it [barley] as they doe Wheat and Rye. 1767A. Young Farmer's Lett. People 214. 1834 Brit. Husb. I. 495 It does not rake the grass into rows, nor cock it.
b. dial. cf. cocker n.3
1882Lancashire Gloss. (E.D.S.), Quock, Quoke, to go a-shearing or harvesting from home.
Hence cocked ppl. a., cocking vbl. n. and ppl. a.
1579Spenser Sheph. Cal. Nov. 12 Or summer shade vnder the cocked haye. 1659Hammond On Ps. Wks. 1684 IV. 120 The toyle of the harvest, in reaping, binding, cocking. 1807R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. II. 455 Grass should..be protected against rain and dew by cocking. 1874Knight Dict. Mech. I. 582/2 A cocking-machine gathers hay from the swath or windrow and puts it in cock.
▪ XIV. † cock, v.5 Obs.
[Evidently related in derivation to the synonymous cocker v.1, and cockle v.3 So far as the form goes, it might be the primitive of which these are diminutive and iterative derivatives; but being known in only one writer, it may be shortened from cocker.]
trans. To cocker, pamper, indulge. Hence cocking vbl. n. and ppl. a.
1573Tusser Husb. (1878) 183 Some cockneies with cocking are made verie fooles, Fit neither for prentise, for plough, nor for schooles. Ibid. 186 Yet cocking Mams, and shifting Dads from schooles, Make pregnant wits to prooue vnlearned fooles. Ibid. 214 Where cocking Dads make sawsie lads, In youth so rage, to beg in age.
▪ XV. cock, v.5
Erroneous or dial. form of calk v.2 (in Cumbrld. dial. coke, coak) = to rough-shoe.
1860Trollope Framley P. (1862) 100 Cautious men..had their horses' shoes cocked. |