cockcrow
See also: cock-crow
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle English cok crowe (also as cokkes crowe), equivalent to cock + crow. Likely a suppletive variation of Old English hancrǣd (“cockcrow, dawn”, literally “cock-crowing”), from hana (“cock, rooster”) + crǣd (“crowing”).
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]cockcrow (countable and uncountable, plural cockcrows)
- The time of day at which the first crow of a cockerel is heard; dawn or daybreak; first light
- 1929, Robert Dean Frisbee, The Book of Puka-Puka, Eland, published 2019, page 175:
- I put the chief of police behind the bar, instructed him in his duties, and we four convivial spirits sprawled along the counter drinking ale and telling yarns till cockcrow.
Synonyms
[edit]- break of day, sunup, sparrow-fart; see also Thesaurus:dawn
Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]dawn
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Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English compound terms
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- en:Times of day