What does "cock" mean?
A male bird, especially:; A rooster: a male gallinaceous bird, especially a male domestic chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus).
Cock
/kɒk/ intj, name, noun, verb, slang
intj, name, noun, verb, slang ·Very common ·Middle school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: A male bird, especially:; A rooster: a male gallinaceous bird, especially a male domestic chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus).
- Grammar: cock is listed as intj, name, noun, verb, slang.
- Nearest alternatives: rooster, anemograph, anemometer, anemometrograph.
- Useful contrasts: biddies, decock, female genitalia.
- Usage evidence: The landlord told me a cock and bull story about why we didn't have heat for three days.
How to use "cock"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "cock" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "cock" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "cock" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "cock" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "cock" is acting as intj, name, noun, verb, slang in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "rooster" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "cock", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A male bird, especially:; A rooster: a male gallinaceous bird, especially a male domestic chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus). countable, uncountable
- 2 A small conical pile of hay or grass.
"Near-synonyms: rick, stook, shock"
- 3 Vulva, vagina. Southern-US
"Born in the canebrake and you were suckled by a bear, Jumped right through your mammy's cock and never touched a hair."
- 4 Abbreviation of cock-boat, a type of small boat. abbreviation, alt-of
"Yond tall anchoring bark [appears] / Diminished to her cock; her cock, a buoy / Almost too small for sight."
- 5 adult male bird wordnet
Show 24 more definitions
- 6 A male bird, especially:; A cock pigeon. countable, uncountable
- 7 adult male chicken wordnet
- 8 A valve or tap for controlling flow in plumbing. countable, uncountable
"The liquor is discharged from the cock S into liquor cans V […], from which it is transferred to the sugar in the moulds. W represents one of the traps or stairs which communicate with respective floors of the sugarhouse."
- 9 the part of a gunlock that strikes the percussion cap when the trigger is pulled wordnet
- 10 The hammer of a firearm trigger mechanism. countable, uncountable
- 11 faucet consisting of a rotating device for regulating flow of a liquid wordnet
- 12 A penis. colloquial, countable, uncountable, vulgar
"She doesn't see his cock, but she doesn't want to, what's the point, right?"
- 13 obscene terms for penis wordnet
- 14 The circle at the end of the rink. countable, uncountable
- 15 The state of being cocked; an upward turn, tilt or angle. countable, uncountable
"[…] with a knowing cock of his eye to his next neighbour. Of this person little need be said."
- 16 A stupid, obnoxious or contemptible person. Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, countable, derogatory, slang, uncountable
- 17 Nonsense; rubbish; a fraud. Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, derogatory, slang, uncountable
""You used to talk an awful lot of cock.""
- 18 An apocryphal story supposedly describing a public event, once sold by street hawkers. UK, countable, obsolete, slang, uncountable
"The running patterer cares less than other street-sellers for bad weather, for if he "work" on a wet and gloomy evening, and if the work be "a cock," which is a fictitious statement or even a pretended fictitious statement, there is the less chance of any one detecting the ruse."
- 19 A man; a fellow. Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, countable, especially, slang, uncountable
"All right, cock?"
- 20 A boastful tilt of one's head or hat. countable, uncountable
- 21 Shuttlecock. countable, informal, uncountable
- 22 A vane in the shape of a cock; a weathercock. countable, uncountable
"Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage! blow! / You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout / Till you have drenched our steeples, drowned the cocks!"
- 23 A chief person; a leader or master. countable, dated, humorous, often, uncountable
- 24 A leading thing. countable, obsolete, uncountable
"The contrarye [side of a die] to this... was called Venus, or Cous, and yt was cocke, the beste that might be cast."
- 25 The crow of a cock, especially the first crow in the morning; cockcrow. countable, uncountable
"This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet: he begins at curfew, and walks till the first cock;"
- 26 A male fish, especially a salmon or trout. countable, uncountable
"As spawning time approaches – autumn or very early winter in most rivers, though in some late-run streams salmon may spawn as late as January or February – the hen's colouration becomes first a matt-pewter and then a drab dark brown-grey. The cock fish, in contrast, begins to gain some brighter colours."
- 27 The style or gnomon of a sundial. countable, uncountable
"Sun-dials, when the shadow of the Cock by passing over the lines of the hours[…]show the stay of the time sliding by."
- 28 The indicator of a balance. countable, uncountable
"The cock, or pointer, which makes a right angle with the beam, will stand upright when the weighing is accurate."
- 29 The bridge piece that affords a bearing for the pivot of a balance in a clock or watch. countable, uncountable
"A round small Silver Watch[…]with a steel Chain[…]a brass Cock, an endless Screw"
Verb
- 1 To lift the cock of a firearm or crossbow; to prepare (a gun or crossbow) to be fired. ambitransitive
"Cocked, fired, and missed his man."
- 2 To form into piles. transitive
"Under the cocked hay."
- 3 set the trigger of a firearm back for firing wordnet
- 4 To be prepared to be triggered by having the cock lifted. intransitive
"In the darkness, the gun cocked loudly."
- 5 tilt or slant to one side wordnet
Show 7 more definitions
- 6 To erect; to turn up. transitive
"Our Lightfoot barks, and cocks his ears."
- 7 to walk with a lofty proud gait, often in an attempt to impress others wordnet
- 8 To copulate with; (by extension, as with fuck) to mess up, to damage, to destroy. British, Ireland, slang, transitive
"Foster's Lager TV commercial, 1980s "Please tell me the way to Cockfosters." ... "Drink it warm, mate.""
- 9 To turn or twist something upwards or to one side; to lift or tilt (e.g. headwear) boastfully. transitive
"He cocked his hat jauntily."
- 10 To turn (the eye) obliquely and partially close its lid, as an expression of derision or insinuation. dated, intransitive
"The Sentry, to this question, said nothing in reply; / But first he cocked his rifle, and then he cocked his eye."
- 11 To strut; to swagger; to look big, pert, or menacing. dated, intransitive
- 12 To make a nestle-cock of, to pamper or spoil (a child). obsolete, transitive
Intj
- 1 Expression of annoyance. Ireland, UK, slang
Proper Noun
- 1 A corruption of the word God, used in oaths. obsolete
"By cock and pie."
- 2 A surname.
Example
"The landlord told me a cock and bull story about why we didn't have heat for three days."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "cock"?
Common synonyms include: rooster, anemograph, anemometer, anemometrograph, anemoscope, angle.
How do you use "cock" in a sentence?
The landlord told me a cock and bull story about why we didn't have heat for three days.
How do you pronounce "cock"?
Pronounced /kɒk/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
From Middle English cok, from Old English coc, cocc (“cock, male bird”), from Proto-West Germanic *kokk, from Proto-Germanic *kukkaz (“cock”), probably of onomatopoeic origin. Cognate with Middle Dutch cocke (“cock, male bird”) and Old Norse kokkr ("cock"; whence Danish kok (“cock”), dialectal Swedish kokk (“cock”)). Reinforced by Old French coc, from the same origin. The sense "penis" is attested since at least the 1610s, with the compound pillicock (“penis”) attested since 1325.
Etymology 2
From Middle English cokke, cock, cok, from Old English *cocc (“heap, pile”, attested in place names), from Proto-West Germanic *kokk, from Proto-Germanic *kukkaz (“mass, bulge, swelling”), from Proto-Indo-European *gew- (“to bend, curve, arch”). Cognate with dialectal German Kocke (“heap of hay, dunghill”), Norwegian kok (“heap, lump”), Swedish koka (“a lump of earth”), Norman coque (“small haystack”), Middle Low German kogge (“wide, rounded ship”), Dutch kogel (“ball”), German Kugel (“ball, globe”).
Etymology 3
Uncertain. Some authors speculate it derives from cockle, a yonic fertility symbol, others suggested it entered Southern US vernacular during the period of French rule (of Louisiana) from Cajun French coquille (“shell”) (itself the source of cockle), which in 18th and 19th century slang meant the vulva.
Etymology 4
from Middle English cok, from Old French coque (“a type of small boat”), from child-talk coco ('egg').
Etymology 5
* As a Dutch and West Flemish surname, from de Cock, related to the noun cook. * As an English surname, spelling variant of Cox.