weathercock

English

Etymology

From Middle English wetharcoke, weþercok, wedercoc, wederkok, equivalent to weather +‎ cock.

Noun

weathercock (plural weathercocks)

1. A weather vane, sometimes in the form of a cockerel.
2. (figuratively) One who veers with every change of current opinion; a fickle, inconstant person.
3. (Chiefly US and Canada) A wind pump style where the top of it behaves like a weather vane, moving with the wind direction, but also with a wheel attached to measure wind speed.

Translations

weather vane

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 風標／风标 (zh) (fēngbiāo), 风标 (zh) (fēngbiāo)

• Danish: vejrhane c
• Dutch: windhaan (nl) m, weerhaan (nl) m
• Esperanto: ventoflago
• Finnish: tuuliviiri (fi) (general); tuulikukko (cockerel-formed)
• French: girouette (fr) f
• German: Wetterfahne (de) f
• Greek: ανεμοδείκτης (el) m (anemodeíktis)
• Hungarian: szélkakas (hu)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Irish: coileach gaoithe m
• Italian: galletto segnavento m
• Japanese: 風見鶏 (kazamidori)
• Macedonian: ве́троказ m (vétrokaz)
• Norman: vithouette f (Jersey)
• Norwegian:

  Nynorsk: vêrhane m

• Portuguese: cata-vento (pt) m
• Russian: флю́гер (ru) m (fljúger)
• Spanish: veleta (es) f
• Tagalog: pabiling, girimpula, banoglawin

a fickle, inconstant person

• Finnish: tuuliviiri (fi)
• Hungarian: szélkakas (hu)
• Italian: banderuola (it) f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Norwegian:

  Nynorsk: vêrhane m

• Spanish: veleta (es)

See also

• weathervane, weather vane
• windsock, wind sock

Verb

weathercock (third-person singular simple present weathercocks, present participle weathercocking, simple past and past participle weathercocked)

1. (intransitive, of a boat) To turn upwind because of the difference in water pressure on two sides.
2. (intransitive, of an airplane or missile) To veer into the direction of the oncoming (relative) wind.
3. (transitive) To act as a weathercock for.