Puttock
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Any of several birds of prey including the red kite, buzzard and marsh harrier British, regional
"Some like to hounds, some like to Apes, dismayd, / Some like to Puttockes, all in plumes arayd: / All shap't according their conditions […]"
- 2 A rapacious person who preys on the defenseless. broadly
"Besides that, as though this pillage and pollage were not rapacious enough, they take in and enclose commons, moors, heaths and other common pastures where out the poor commonalty were want to have all their provisions and feeding for their cattle and (which is more) corn for themselves to live upon; all which are now in most places taken from them by those greedy puttocks to the great impoverishing and utter beggaring of many whole towns"
- 3 The futtock.
Example
More examples"Some like to hounds, some like to Apes, dismayd, / Some like to Puttockes, all in plumes arayd: / All shap't according their conditions […]"
Etymology
From Middle English puttock, puttok, potok, puttoc, of uncertain origin; perhaps representing an unattested Old English *putta (“hawk”) + -ock; or perhaps from Old English *pūthafoc (literally “pout-hawk”), equivalent to pout (“a kind of fish”) + hawk. Compare also pout (“a young bird”), poult.
Related phrases
More for "puttock"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.