Woodcock

//ˈwʊd.kɒk// name, noun

name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any of several wading birds in the genus Scolopax, characterised by a long slender bill and cryptic brown and blackish plumage.

    ""[A]h, that was the woodcock and the goatsucker - yes, yes! it sounds strange to him, that hasn't heard him[.]""

  2. 2
    game bird of the sandpiper family that resembles a snipe wordnet
  3. 3
    A simpleton.

    "If I loved you not, I would laugh at you, and see you / Run your neck into the noose, and cry, "A woodcock!""

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname from Old English. countable, uncountable
  2. 2
    A borough and neighbouring township in Crawford County, Pennsylvania, United States. countable, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
magpie

Example

More examples

"The pheasant, the bustard, the deaf wild peacock, the moorhen, the partridge, the woodcock and the thrush are said to be delicacies."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English wodecocke, wode-koc, wodekok, from Old English wudecocc, wuducoc, equivalent to wood + cock.

Etymology 2

From Old English wuducoc (“woodcock”), a nickname for a stupid or gullible person.

Related phrases

Amami woodcockAmerican woodcockBukidnon woodcockEurasian woodcockJavan woodcockMoluccan woodcockNew Guinea woodcockScotch woodcockSulawesi woodcockwading bird

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.