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[kok] /kɒk/

noun
1.
a male chicken; rooster.
2.
the male of any bird, especially of the gallinaceous kind.
3.
Also called stopcock. a hand-operated valve or faucet, especially one opened or closed by rotating a cylindrical or tapered plug having part of the passage pierced through it from side to side.
4.

5.
Slang: Vulgar.

6.
a weathercock.
7.
aleader; chief person.
8.
Chiefly British Informal. pal; chum.
9.
British Slang. .
10.
Horology. a bracketlike plate holding bearings, supported at one end only.
Compare 1 (def 17).
11.
Archaic. the time of the crowing of the cock; early in the morning; cockcrow.
verb (used with object)
12.
to pull back and set the cock, or hammer, of (a firearm) preparatory to firing.
13.
to draw back in preparation for throwing or hitting:
He cocked his bat and waited for the pitch.
14.
to set (a camera shutter or other mechanism) for tripping.
Compare 1 (def 28).
verb (used without object)
15.
to cock the firing mechanism of a firearm.
[kok] /kɒk/
verb (used with object)
1.
to set or turn up or to one side, often in an assertive, jaunty, or significant manner:
He cocked his eyebrow questioningly.
verb (used without object)
2.
to stand or stick up conspicuously.
3.
Scot. and New England. to strut; swagger; put on airs of importance.
noun
4.
the act of turning the head, a hat, etc., up or to one side in a jaunty or significant way.
5.
the position of anything thus placed.
Idioms
6.
cock a snook. 2 (def 2).
[kok] /kɒk/
noun, Chiefly Northern and North Midland U.S.
1.
a conical pile of hay, dung, etc.
verb (used with object)
2.
to pile (hay, dung, etc.) in cocks.
/kɒk/
noun
1.
the male of the domestic fowl
2.

3.
short for stopcock, weathercock
4.
a taboo slang word for penis
5.

6.
(Brit, informal) a friend, mate, or fellow
7.
a jaunty or significant tilting or turning upwards: a cock of the head
8.
(Brit, informal) nonsense
verb
9.
(transitive) to set the firing pin, hammer, or breech block of (a firearm) so that a pull on the trigger will release it and thus fire the weapon
10.
(transitive) to set the shutter mechanism of (a camera) so that the shutter can be tripped by pressing the shutter-release button
11.
(transitive) sometimes foll by up. to raise in an alert or jaunty manner
12.
(intransitive) to stick or stand up conspicuously
/kɒk/
noun
1.
a small, cone-shaped heap of hay, straw, etc
verb
2.
(transitive) to stack (hay, straw, etc) in such heaps
n.

“male chicken,” Old English cocc “male bird,” Old French coc (12c., Modern French coq), Old Norse kokkr, all of echoic origin. Old English cocc was a nickname for “one who strutted like a cock,” thus a common term in the Middle Ages for a pert boy, used of scullions, apprentices, servants, etc.

A common personal name till c.1500, it was affixed to Christian names as a pet diminutive, e.g. Wilcox, Hitchcock, etc. Slang sense of “penis” is attested since 1610s (but cf. pillicock “penis,” from c.1300); cock-teaser is from 1891. A cocker spaniel (1823) was trained to start woodcocks. Cock-and-bull is first recorded 1620s, perhaps an allusion to Aesop’s fables, with their incredible talking animals, or to a particular story, now forgotten. French has parallel expression coq-à-l’âne.

in various mechanical senses, such as cock of a faucet (early 15c.) is of uncertain connection with cock (n.1), but German has hahn “hen” in many of the same senses. The cock of an old matchlock firearm is 1560s, hence half-cocked “with the cock lifted to the first catch, at which position the trigger does not act” (by 1809).
v.

mid-12c., cocken, “to fight;” 1570s, “to swagger;” seeming contradictory modern senses of “to stand up” (as in cock one’s ear), c.1600, and “to bend” (1898) are from the two cock nouns. The first is probably in reference to the posture of the bird’s head or tail, the second to the firearm position. To cock ones hat carries the notion of “defiant boastfulness.”

adjective

Drunk (1730s+)

Related Terms

half cocked

noun

Related Terms

drop your cocks and grab your socks, poppycock

[origin uncertain; perhaps based on cock, ”spigot”]
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