woodcock
See also: Woodcock
English
Etymology
From Middle English wodecocke, wode-koc, wodekok, from Old English wudecocc, wuducoc, equivalent to wood + cock.
Pronunciation
Noun
woodcock (plural woodcock or woodcocks)
- Any of several wading birds in the genus Scolopax, of the family Scolopacidae, characterised by a long slender bill and cryptic brown and blackish plumage.
- A simpleton.
- Beaumont and Fletcher
- If I loved you not, I would laugh at you, and see you / Run your neck into the noose, and cry, "A woodcock!"
- 1838, Nathan Drake, Belletristical Works (volume 1, page 215)
- "Now will that silly woodcock make such a report of what I have said to his chosen friend," observed Sir Robert to his companion when my Lord Cobham was out of hearing […]
- Beaumont and Fletcher
Derived terms
Related terms
- roding, the patrolling flight pattern of the woodcock.
Translations
wading bird in the genus Scolopax
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Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English compound terms
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English indeclinable nouns
- English nouns with irregular plurals
- en:Scolopacids