Cockscomb
noun
noun ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A fleshy red crest of a rooster
- 2 the fleshy red crest on the head of the domestic fowl and other gallinaceous birds wordnet
- 3 A red cap once worn by court jesters
- 4 a cap worn by court jesters; adorned with a strip of red wordnet
- 5 A yellow rattle, Rhinanthus minor (flowering plant native to Eurasia)
Show 5 more definitions
- 6 a conceited dandy who is overly impressed by his own accomplishments wordnet
- 7 An annual garden plant (Celosia argentea var. cristata, syn. Celosia cristata), having showy red clusters of flowers
"She saw a square picture framed in the window, two whitewashed cottages each with a little winding path, a bed of red and yellow cockscomb, a sloping field, a row of gum-trees, a child in a blue sunbonnet carrying a basket."
- 8 garden annual with featherlike spikes of red or yellow flowers wordnet
- 9 A conceited dandy archaic
- 10 A serrated cleat once fitted to the yards of a square-rigged ship and used when the sail was being reefed
Example
More examples"The cockerel's splendid red cockscomb is thought to play a part in determining gender and breed."
Etymology
From Middle English cokkes comb; equivalent to cock + -s- + comb.
Related phrases
More for "cockscomb"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.