COCK, n.

1. The male of birds, particularly of gallinaceous or domestic fowls, which having no appropriate or distinctive name, are called dunghill fowls or barn-door fowls.
2. A weather-cock; a vane in shape of a cock. – Shak. [It is usually called a weather-cock.]
3. A spout; an instrument to draw out or discharge liquor from a cask, vat, or pipe; so named from its projection.
4. The projecting corner of a hat. – Addison.
5. A small conical pile of hay, so shaped for shedding rain; called in England a cop. When hay is dry and rolled together for carting, the heaps are not generally called cocks, at least not in New England. A large conical pile is called a stack.
6. The style or gnomon of a dial. – Chambers.
7. The needle of a balance. – Bailey. Johnson.
8. The piece which covers the balance in a clock or watch. – Bailey.
9. The notch of an arrow. [It. cocca.] – Johnson.
10. The part of a musket or other fire-arm, to which a flint is attached, and which, being impelled by a spring, strikes fire, and opens the pan at the same time.
11. A small boat. [W. cwc, Ir. coca, D. and Dan. kaag, It. cocca.] It is now called a cock-boat, which is tautology, as cock itself is a boat.
12. A leader; a chief man. Sir Andrew is the cock of the club. – Addison.
13. Cock-crowing; the time when cocks crow in the morning. – Shak. Cock a hoop, or cock on the hoop, a phrase denoting triumph; triumphant; exulting. [Qu. Fr. coq à huppe. Bailey.] – Camden. Shak. Hudibras. Cock and a bull, a phrase denoting tedious trifling stories.

1. To hold up the head; to strut; to look big, pert, or menacing. – Dryden. Addison.
2. To train or use fighting cocks. [Little used.] – B. Jonson.
3. To cocker. [Not in use.]

1. To set erect; to turn up; as, to cock the nose or ears. – Addison.
2. To set the brim of a hat so as to make sharp corners or points; or to set up with an air of pertness. – Prior.
3. To make up hay in small conical piles.
4. To set or draw back the cock of a gun, in order to fire. – Dryden.

1. The male of birds, particularly of gallinaceous or domestic fowls.
2. To set erect] to turn up.
   
   

   Our Lightfoot barks, and cocks his ears.
   Gay.

   Dick would cock his nose in scorn.
   Swift.

3. To strut; to swagger; to look big, pert, or menacing.
   
   
   Addison.
4. The act of cocking; also, the turn so given; as, a cock of the eyes; to give a hat a saucy cock.
5. The notch of an arrow or crossbow.
6. To draw the hammer of (a firearm) fully back and set it for firing.
7. To draw back the hammer of a firearm, and set it for firing.
   
   

   Cocked, fired, and missed his man.
   Byron.

8. A small concial pile of hay.
9. To put into cocks or heaps, as hay.
   
   

   Under the cocked hay.
   Spenser.

10. A small boat.
    
    

    Yond tall anchoring bark [appears]
    Diminished to her cock; her cock, a buoy
    Almost too small for sight.
    Shak.

11. A corruption or disguise of the word God, used in oaths.
    
    
    [Obs.] "By cock and pie." Shak.
12. A vane in the shape of a cock; a weathercock.
    
    

    Drenched our steeples, drowned the cocks!
    Shak.

13. To shape, as a hat, by turning up the brim.
14. The hammer in the lock of a firearm.
    
    

    At cock, At full cock, with the hammer raised and ready to fire; -- said of firearms, also, jocularly, of one prepared for instant action. -- At half cock. See under Half. -- Cock feather (Archery), the feather of an arrow at right angles to the direction of the cock or notch. Nares.

15. A chief man; a leader or master.
    
    
    [Humorous]

    Sir Andrew is the cock of the club, since he left us.
    Addison.

16. To set on one side in a pert or jaunty manner.
    
    

    They cocked their hats in each other's faces.
    Macaulay.

17. The crow of a cock, esp. the first crow in the morning; cockcrow.
    
    
    [Obs.]

    He begins at curfew, and walks till the first cock.
    Shak.

18. To turn (the eye) obliquely and partially close its lid, as an expression of derision or insinuation.
    
    

    Cocked hat. (a) A hat with large, stiff flaps turned up to a peaked crown, thus making its form triangular; -- called also three-cornered hat. (b) A game similar to ninepins, except that only three pins are used, which are set up at the angles of a triangle.

19. A faucet or valve.
    
    

    * Jonsons says, "The handle probably had a cock on the top; things that were contrived to turn seem anciently to have had that form, whatever was the reason." Skinner says, because it used to be constructed in forma critæ galli, i.e., in the form of a cock's comb.

20. The style of gnomon of a dial.
    
    
    Chambers.
21. The indicator of a balance.
    
    
    Johnson.
22. The bridge piece which affords a bearing for the pivot of a balance in a clock or watch.
    
    
    Knight.

    Ball cock. See under Ball. - - Chaparral cock. See under Chaparral. -- Cock and bull story, an extravagant, boastful story; a canard. -- Cock of the plains (Zoöl.) See Sage cock. -- Cock of the rock (Zoöl.), a South American bird (Rupicola aurantia) having a beautiful crest. -- Cock of the walk, a chief or master; the hero of the hour; one who has overcrowed, or got the better of, rivals or competitors. -- Cock of the woods. See Capercailzie.