Emily Dickinson Lexicon

COCK, n. [Sax. coc; Fr. coq; Arm. gocq; Sans. kuka; Slav. kokosch. The sense is, that which shoots out or up; It. cocca, the tip of a spindle, the top or crown; L. cacumen.]

1. The male of birds, particularly of gallinaceous or domestic fowls, which having no appropriate or distinctive name, are called dunghill fowls or barn-door fowls.
2. A weather-cock; a vane in shape of a cock. – Shak. [It is usually called a weather-cock.]
3. A spout; an instrument to draw out or discharge liquor from a cask, vat, or pipe; so named from its projection.
4. The projecting corner of a hat. – Addison.
5. A small conical pile of hay, so shaped for shedding rain; called in England a cop. When hay is dry and rolled together for carting, the heaps are not generally called cocks, at least not in New England. A large conical pile is called a stack.
6. The style or gnomon of a dial. – Chambers.
7. The needle of a balance. – Bailey. Johnson.
8. The piece which covers the balance in a clock or watch. – Bailey.
9. The notch of an arrow. [It. cocca.] – Johnson.
10. The part of a musket or other fire-arm, to which a flint is attached, and which, being impelled by a spring, strikes fire, and opens the pan at the same time.
11. A small boat. [W. cwc, Ir. coca, D. and Dan. kaag, It. cocca.] It is now called a cock-boat, which is tautology, as cock itself is a boat.
12. A leader; a chief man. Sir Andrew is the cock of the club. – Addison.
13. Cock-crowing; the time when cocks crow in the morning. – Shak. Cock a hoop, or cock on the hoop, a phrase denoting triumph; triumphant; exulting. [Qu. Fr. coq à huppe. Bailey.] – Camden. Shak. Hudibras. Cock and a bull, a phrase denoting tedious trifling stories.