cock1
/kɒk
/- The cock was always conspicuous on any walk one took into the fens, with black cap and bib and white collar, flying up on to a sallow bush, uttering a wheezy jingle of alarm notes.
- Every little lane among which I live had its hedgerow yellowhammers, the cocks perched on high on their songposts, on bushes or the telegraph wires.
Synonyms
- And a gigantic cock salmon of around 44 lb was also landed in November during hatchery broodstock collection.
- Don't give her that ring, young cock!
- Don't go round that corner on your special pedalcar, young cock!
- That's the way to make your staff feel valued - take away the tiniest benefit and justify it with what is obviously a load of cock and bull.
- I've probably been biased by the show's being such absolute cock.
- It should surprise you not at all that this is cock.
- She cocks her jaw, tilts her head, and taps a fisted hand on the chair's arm.
- She jolted slightly in alarm, before leaning back and, cocking her chin to the side, surveyed him in perplexity.
- Andrew's brow furrows, and he cocks his head slightly.
Synonyms
- Her wings are cocked in a funny angle as if they were broken recently.
- A straight extension of your arms, not cocked up or angled down, can cause strain and pain.
- A sea of hands goes up: the men point their index fingers and cock their thumbs, waving imaginary guns over their heads.
Synonyms
- Postal workers are so fed up with dogs cocking their legs on the town's main postbox that the Royal Mail is threatening to remove it.
- His unluckiest dog cocked his leg at a lamp post - and was electrocuted.
- Junior turned around as the dog was cocking his leg.
Synonyms
- The sound of fifty plus guns being cocked ready to fire echoed throughout the enclosed hangar.
- Two goons cocked their guns ready to fire at me, still kneeling on the ground, when he lifted a finger.
- When you're loading to shoot immediately you can simply position the empty chamber under the firing pin and cock the gun in a normal manner.
- If he cocks it up, he should have the grace to accept responsibility.
- The last thing a private detective wants to be doing is trampling all over the evidence and cocking it up.
- Each time I checked only to find I'd cocked it up.
Phrases
at full cock
cock one's ear
cock one's eye
cock of the walk
cock a snook
Origin
Old English cocc, from medieval Latin coccus; reinforced in Middle English by Old French coq.
The ancient root of the word cock was probably suggested by the sound the bird makes. The same root is likely to have given us chicken as well. If you are cock-a-hoop you are extremely pleased, especially after some success or triumph. The expression dates from the 17th century and comes from an earlier phrase set cock a hoop. Cock here may be used in the sense of a tap for stopping the flow of liquid, so that the expression refers to turning on the tap of a beer barrel and allowing beer to flow freely before a drinking session. A cock-and-bull story is a ridiculous and implausible tale. The expression ‘talk of a cock and a bull’ is recorded from the early 17th century, and apparently refers to some rambling story or fable, a ‘shaggy dog story’, which is now lost. To cock a snook, first recorded in 1791, is to show open contempt or lack of respect for someone or something, originally by touching your nose with your thumb and spreading out your fingers. Cock here means ‘to stick out stiffly’, but the origin of snook is not known. Because it is such an unfamiliar word, people have often taken to saying snoot (slang for ‘nose’) instead of snook. See also cox
Rhymes
cock2
/kɒk/- Country people will recall the mini-cyclones lifting cocks of hay into the air and carrying them for a distance before dropping them back to ground again.
- He took a great pride in those cocks of hay, especially during wet summers when they were the only ones to be seen for miles around.
- The cocks of hay that had stood in the fields for some weeks were checked regularly by dad to make sure that they did not ‘heat’.
Origin
Late Middle English: perhaps of Scandinavian origin and related to Norwegian kok 'heap, lump', Danish kok 'haycock', and Swedish koka 'clod'.