cock

Etymology 1

From Middle English cok, from Old English coc, cocc (“cock, male bird”), from Proto-West Germanic *kokk, from Proto-Germanic *kukkaz (“cock”), probably of onomatopoeic origin. Cognate with Middle Dutch cocke (“cock, male bird”) and Old Norse kokkr ("cock"; whence Danish kok (“cock”), dialectal Swedish kokk (“cock”)). Reinforced by Old French coc, also of imitative origin. The sense "penis" is attested since at least the 1610s, with the compound pillicock (“penis”) attested since 1325.

noun

1. A male bird, especially:
   1. A rooster: a male gallinaceous bird, especially a male domestic chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus).
   2. A cock pigeon.
2. A valve or tap for controlling flow in plumbing.
   The liquor is discharged from the cock S into liquor cans V […], from which it is transferred to the sugar in the moulds. W represents one of the traps or stairs which communicate with respective floors of the sugarhouse. 1864, Robert Niccol, Essay on Sugar, and General Treatise on Sugar Refining
3. The hammer of a firearm trigger mechanism.
4. (colloquial, vulgar) A penis.
   Alternative form: cawk
   My cock is much bigger than yours / My cock can walk right through the door / With a feeling so pure / It's got you screaming back for more 2005, System of a Down (lyrics and music), “Cigaro”
5. (curling) The circle at the end of the rink.
6. The state of being cocked; an upward turn, tilt or angle.
   […] in 1803; my eyes transmogrified […]; my nose had lost its pretty cock, and had grown elegantly hooked; and […] 1843, James Anthony Froude, John Tulloch, Fraser's Magazine, page 694
7. (Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, derogatory, slang) A stupid, obnoxious or contemptible person.
8. (Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, derogatory, slang, uncountable) Nonsense; rubbish; a fraud.
   The running patterer cares less than other street-sellers for bad weather, for if he "work" on a wet and gloomy evening, and if the work be "a cock," which is a fictitious statement or even a pretended fictitious statement, there is the less chance of any one detecting the ruse. 1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor
   You used to talk an awful lot of cock. 1956, William Golding, Pincher Martin
   That Hitler's armies can't be beat is just a load of cock, / For Marshal Timoshenko's boys are pissing through von Bock […] 2013, M. J. Trow, Swearing Like A Trooper: Rude Slang of World War Two
9. (slang, Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, especially as term of address) A man; a fellow.
   All right, cock?
   Now, in coming down here, I journeyed part of the way with a jolly old cock, who shed a tear with me every time the coach stopped […] 1848, Thomas Frost, Paul the Poacher, page 118
10. A boastful tilt of one's head or hat.
11. (informal) Shuttlecock.
12. A vane in the shape of a cock; a weathercock.
13. (dated, often humorous) A chief person; a leader or master.
14. (obsolete) A leading thing.
    The contrarye [side of a die] to this... was called Venus, or Cous, and yt was cocke, the beste that might be cast. 1542, Erasmus, translated by Nicholas Udall, Apophthegmata, page 164
    Tis sir Salomon's sword; cock of as many men as it hath been drawn against. Woe worth the man that comes in the way of so dead-doing a tool, […] 1672 (original), 1776 (printed), Andrew Marvell, The Works of Andrew Marvell, page 154
    She is a widow, don, consider that; Has buried one was thought a Hercules, Two cubits taller, and a man that cut Three inches deeper in the say, than I; Consider that too : She may be cock o'twenty, nay, for aught know, she is immortal. 1833, James Shirley, The Dramatic Works and Poems of James Shirley, page 232
15. The crow of a cock, especially the first crow in the morning; cockcrow.
    And here we are, half-way to Alcalá, between cocks and midnight. 1842 (published 1856), Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Poems …, page 334
16. A male fish, especially a salmon or trout.
    As spawning time approaches – autumn or very early winter in most rivers, though in some late-run streams salmon may spawn as late as January or February – the hen's colouration becomes first a matt-pewter and then a drab dark brown-grey. The cock fish, in contrast, begins to gain some brighter colours. 2005, Roderick Sutterby, Malcolm Greenhalgh, “Life in the Nursery”, in Atlantic Salmon: An Illustrated Natural History, Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, page 21
17. The style or gnomon of a sundial.
    Sun-dials, when the shadow of the Cock by passing over the lines of the hours[…]show the stay of the time sliding by. 1656, William Dugard, (Please provide the book title or journal name)
18. The indicator of a balance.
    The cock, or pointer, which makes a right angle with the beam, will stand upright when the weighing is accurate. 1833, John Holland, Treatise on the Manufactures in Metal
19. The bridge piece that affords a bearing for the pivot of a balance in a clock or watch.
    A round small Silver Watch[…]with a steel Chain[…]a brass Cock, an endless Screw (Can we date this quote?), “London Gazette”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)

verb

1. (transitive, intransitive) To lift the cock of a firearm or crossbow; to prepare (a gun or crossbow) to be fired.
   Cocked, fired, and missed his man. 1812, Lord Byron, The Waltz
2. (intransitive) To be prepared to be triggered by having the cock lifted.
   In the darkness, the gun cocked loudly.
3. (transitive) To erect; to turn up.
   Our Lightfoot barks, and cocks his ears. 1720, John Gay, Thursday: Or, The Spell
   Dick would cock his nose in scorn. 1728, Jonathan Swift, A Dialogue Between Mad Mullinix and Timothy
4. (Britain, transitive, slang) To copulate with; (by extension, as with fuck) to mess up, to damage, to destroy.
   Foster's Lager TV commercial, 1980s "Please tell me the way to Cockfosters." ... "Drink it warm, mate."
5. (transitive) To turn or twist something upwards or to one side; to lift or tilt (e.g. headwear) boastfully.
   He cocked his hat jauntily.
6. (intransitive, dated) To turn (the eye) obliquely and partially close its lid, as an expression of derision or insinuation.
   The Sentry, to this question, said nothing in reply; / But first he cocked his rifle, and then he cocked his eye. 1873, Mark Lemon, Henry Mayhew, Tom Taylor, Punch, volumes 64-65, page 36
7. (intransitive, dated) To strut; to swagger; to look big, pert, or menacing.
8. (transitive, obsolete) To make a nestle-cock of, to pamper or spoil (a child).

intj

1. (slang) Expression of annoyance.
   2006, Vamp, “oh cock i should have kept with a toyota!”, in uk.rec.cars.modifications (Usenet):

Etymology 2

Uncertain. Some authors speculate it derives from cockle, a yonic fertility symbol, others suggested it entered Southern US vernacular during the period of French rule (of Louisiana) from Cajun French coquille (“shell”) (itself the source of cockle), which in 18th and 19th century slang meant the vulva.

noun

1. (Southern US, where it is now rare and dated; and African-American Vernacular, where it is still sometimes used) Vulva, vagina.
   Born in the canebrake and you were suckled by a bear, Jumped right through your mammy's cock and never touched a hair. c. 1920-1960, Rufus George Perryman (Speckled Red), quoted by Elijah Wald, The Dozens: A History of Rap's Mama
   My back is made of whalebone And my cock is made of brass March 5, 1935, “Shave 'Em Dry, No. 2”, in Raunchy Business: Hot Nuts & Lollypops, performed by Lucille Bogan, published 1991, track 6
   The dog come a-trottin' and the dog come a-lopin' A purty little gal with her cock wide open. 1992, Vance Randolph, edited by Gershon Legman, Unprintable Ozark Folksongs and Folklore: Roll me in your arms, volume 1, Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, page 411
   I stuck my fist up in her cock, she didn't budge or move it. February 17, 1998, Scarface, Too Short, Tela, Devin the Dude (lyrics and music), “Fuck Faces”, in My Homies, track 8
   She smelled like she was on her period and hadn't changed pads. On ah many occasions I heard men say her cock smelled through her clothing. 2010, Vildred C. Tucker-Dawson, A Journey Back in Time: My Story Book, page 42

Etymology 3

From Middle English cokke, cock, cok, from Old English -cocc (attested in place names), from Old Norse kǫkkr (“lump”), from Proto-Germanic *kukkaz (“bulge, swelling”), from Proto-Indo-European *geugh- (“swelling”). Cognate with Norwegian kok (“heap, lump”), Swedish koka (“a lump of earth”), German Kocke (“heap of hay, dunghill”), Middle Low German kogge (“wide, rounded ship”), Dutch kogel (“ball”), German Kugel (“ball, globe”).

noun

1. Hay-cock, a small conical pile of hay.
   The farmhands stack the hay into cocks.

verb

1. (transitive) To form into piles.
   Under the cocked hay. 1579, Edmund Spenser, The Shepheardes Calender

Etymology 4

from Middle English cok, from Old French coque (“a type of small boat”), from child-talk coco ('egg').

noun

1. Abbreviation of cock-boat, a type of small boat.