cog

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Contents

English[edit]

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Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Model of a cog.

From Middle English cogge, from Middle Dutch kogge, cogghe (modern kogge), from Proto-Germanic *kuggō (compare German Kock (“cogboat”), Norwegian kugg (“cog (gear tooth)”)), from Proto-Indo-European *gugā (“hump, ball”) (compare Lithuanian gugà (“pommel, hump, hill”)), from *gēu- (“to bend, arch”). See below.

Noun[edit]

cog (plural cogs)

  1. (historical) A ship of burden, or war with a round, bulky hull.
    • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book V:
      As the Kynge was in his cog and lay in his caban, he felle in a slumberyng […].
Translations[edit]
type of ship

Etymology 2[edit]

Cogwheel showing the teeth (cogs).

From Middle English cogge, from Old Norse (compare Norwegian kugg (“cog”), Swedish kugg, kugge (“cog, tooth”)), from Proto-Germanic *kuʒʒō (compare Dutch kogge (“cogboat”), German Kock (“id.”)), from Proto-Indo-European *gugā (“hump, ball”) (compare Lithuanian gugà (“pommel, hump, hill”)), from *gēu- (“to bend, arch”).

The meaning of “cog” in carpentry derives from association with a tooth on a cogwheel.

Noun[edit]

cog (plural cogs)

  1. A tooth on a gear
  2. A gear; a cogwheel
  3. An unimportant individual in a greater system.
    • 1976, Norman Denny (English translation), Victor Hugo (original French), Les Misérables
      ‘There are twenty-five of us, but they don’t reckon I’m worth anything. I’m just a cog in the machine.’
    • 1988, David Mamet, Speed-the-Plow
      Your boss tells you “take initiative,” you best guess right—and you do, then you get no credit. Day-in, … smiling, smiling, just a cog.
  4. (carpentry) A projection or tenon at the end of a beam designed to fit into a matching opening of another piece of wood to form a joint.
  5. (mining) One of the rough pillars of stone or coal left to support the roof of a mine.
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
tooth on a gear
gear; a cogwheel
unimportant individual
carpentry: a projection or tenon

Verb[edit]

cog (third-person singular simple present cogs, present participle cogging, simple past and past participle cogged)

  1. To furnish with a cog or cogs.

Etymology 3[edit]

Uncertain origin. Both verb and noun appear first in 1532.

Noun[edit]

cog (plural cogs)

  1. An act of cogging.
Translations[edit]
act of cogging

Verb[edit]

cog (third-person singular simple present cogs, present participle cogging, simple past and past participle cogged)

  1. to cheat at dice
  2. to cheat; to play or gamble fraudulently
    • Jonathan Swift
      For guineas in other men's breeches, / Your gamesters will palm and will cog.
Translations[edit]
cheat at dice
cheat at dice

Etymology 4[edit]

From Old English cogge

Alternative forms[edit]

Noun[edit]

cog (plural cogs)

  1. A small fishing boat

Scottish Gaelic[edit]

Verb[edit]

cog (verbal noun cogadh)

  1. fight
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