overwordExplorer
ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

cock.

A male bird, especially:

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/kɒk/Received-Pronunciation/kɑk/General-American
  1. A male bird, especially: A rooster: a male gallinaceous bird, especially a male domestic chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus).

    countable · uncountable
  2. A male bird, especially: A cock pigeon.

    countable · uncountable
  3. A valve or tap for controlling flow in plumbing.

    countable · uncountable
  4. The hammer of a firearm trigger mechanism.

    countable · uncountable
  5. A penis.

    colloquial · countable · uncountable · vulgar
  6. The circle at the end of the rink.

    countable · uncountable
  7. The state of being cocked; an upward turn, tilt or angle.

    countable · uncountable
  8. A stupid, obnoxious or contemptible person.

    Commonwealth · Ireland · UK · countable · derogatory · slang · uncountable
  9. Nonsense; rubbish; a fraud.

    Commonwealth · Ireland · UK · derogatory · slang · uncountable
  10. An apocryphal story supposedly describing a public event, once sold by street hawkers.

    UK · countable · obsolete · slang · uncountable
  11. A man; a fellow.

    Commonwealth · Ireland · UK · countable · especially · slang · uncountable
    All right, cock?
  12. A boastful tilt of one's head or hat.

    countable · uncountable
  13. Shuttlecock.

    countable · informal · uncountable
  14. A vane in the shape of a cock; a weathercock.

    countable · uncountable
  15. A chief person; a leader or master.

    countable · dated · humorous · often · uncountable
  16. A leading thing.

    countable · obsolete · uncountable
  17. The crow of a cock, especially the first crow in the morning; cockcrow.

    countable · uncountable
  18. A male fish, especially a salmon or trout.

    countable · uncountable
  19. The style or gnomon of a sundial.

    countable · uncountable
  20. The indicator of a balance.

    countable · uncountable
  21. The bridge piece that affords a bearing for the pivot of a balance in a clock or watch.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *keukô Proto-Germanic *kukkaz Proto-West Germanic *kokk Old English cocc Middle English cok English cock 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, from the same origin. The sense "penis" is attested since at least the 1610s, with the compound pillicock (“penis”) attested since 1325.

verb/kɒk/Received-Pronunciation/kɑk/General-American
  1. To lift the cock of a firearm or crossbow; to prepare (a gun or crossbow) to be fired.

    ambitransitive
  2. To be prepared to be triggered by having the cock lifted.

    intransitive
    In the darkness, the gun cocked loudly.
  3. To erect; to turn up.

    transitive
  4. To copulate with; (by extension, as with fuck) to mess up, to damage, to destroy.

    Ireland · UK · slang · transitive
  5. To turn or twist something upwards or to one side; to lift or tilt (e.g. headwear) boastfully.

    transitive
    He cocked his hat jauntily.
  6. To turn (the eye) obliquely and partially close its lid, as an expression of derision or insinuation.

    dated · intransitive
  7. To strut; to swagger; to look big, pert, or menacing.

    dated · intransitive
  8. To make a nestle-cock of, to pamper or spoil (a child).

    obsolete · transitive
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *keukô Proto-Germanic *kukkaz Proto-West Germanic *kokk Old English cocc Middle English cok English cock 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, from the same origin. The sense "penis" is attested since at least the 1610s, with the compound pillicock (“penis”) attested since 1325.

intj/kɒk/Received-Pronunciation/kɑk/General-American
  1. Expression of annoyance.

    Ireland · UK · slang
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *keukô Proto-Germanic *kukkaz Proto-West Germanic *kokk Old English cocc Middle English cok English cock 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, from the same origin. The sense "penis" is attested since at least the 1610s, with the compound pillicock (“penis”) attested since 1325.

noun/kɒk/Received-Pronunciation/kɑk/General-American
  1. A small conical pile of hay or grass.

    The farmhands stack the hay into cocks.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English cokke, cock, cok, from Old English *cocc (“heap, pile”, attested in place names), from Proto-West Germanic *kokk, from Proto-Germanic *kukkaz (“mass, bulge, swelling”), from Proto-Indo-European *gew- (“to bend, curve, arch”). Cognate with dialectal German Kocke (“heap of hay, dunghill”), Norwegian kok (“heap, lump”), Swedish koka (“a lump of earth”), Norman coque (“small haystack”), Middle Low German kogge (“wide, rounded ship”), Dutch kogel (“ball”), German Kugel (“ball, globe”).

verb/kɒk/Received-Pronunciation/kɑk/General-American
  1. To form into piles.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English cokke, cock, cok, from Old English *cocc (“heap, pile”, attested in place names), from Proto-West Germanic *kokk, from Proto-Germanic *kukkaz (“mass, bulge, swelling”), from Proto-Indo-European *gew- (“to bend, curve, arch”). Cognate with dialectal German Kocke (“heap of hay, dunghill”), Norwegian kok (“heap, lump”), Swedish koka (“a lump of earth”), Norman coque (“small haystack”), Middle Low German kogge (“wide, rounded ship”), Dutch kogel (“ball”), German Kugel (“ball, globe”).

noun/kɒk/Received-Pronunciation/kɑk/General-American
  1. Vulva, vagina.

    Southern-US
Where this word comes from

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.

name/kɒk/Received-Pronunciation/kɑk/General-American
  1. A corruption of the word God, used in oaths.

    obsolete
noun/kɒk/Received-Pronunciation/kɑk/General-American
  1. Abbreviation of cock-boat, a type of small boat.

    abbreviation · alt-of
Where this word comes from

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

FROM WORD TO NAME

Try it on your idea.

cock has 4 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.

cock studiocock workshello, cock

These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.

Explore the name generator

A word with a source.

Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.