spatchcock

English

Etymology

Related to spitchcock (“to split and broil an eel”), of uncertain origin. Possibly a corruption of dispatch + cock.

Noun

spatchcock (plural spatchcocks)

1. Chicken meat when prepared by spatchcocking. (See below.)
2. A rushed effort.

Verb

spatchcock (third-person singular simple present spatchcocks, present participle spatchcocking, simple past and past participle spatchcocked)

1. To cut poultry along the spine and spread the halves apart, for more even cooking when grilled.

   spatchcocked chicken

2. To interpolate, insert or sandwich (in or into)
   • 1922, Joyce, Ulysses, chapter 9

     Why is the underplot of King Lear in which Edmund figures lifted out of Sidney's Arcadia and spatchcocked on to a Celtic legend older than history?

3. To prepare in haste.

Synonyms

• (prepare chicken): frog

See also

• butterfly
• spitchcock