cockatrice

[ kok-uh-tris ]

/ ˈkɒk ə trɪs /

noun

a legendary monster with a deadly glance, supposedly hatched by a serpent from the egg of a cock, and commonly represented with the head, legs, and wings of a cock and the body and tail of a serpent.Compare basilisk(def 1).

a venomous serpent. Isa. 11:8.

Nearby words

Origin of cockatrice

1350–1400; Middle English cocatrice < Middle French cocatris < Medieval Latin caucātrīces (plural), Latin *calcātrīx (see -trix), feminine of *calcātor tracker, equivalent to calcā(re) to tread, verbal derivative of calx heel + -tor -tor; rendering Greek ichneúmon ichneumon

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for cockatrice

Even in this case, however, the word is rendered as Cockatrice in the marginal translation.
Bible Animals;|J. G. Wood
As for the cockatrice, he was not going to stand that sort of thing for a moment.
The Book of Dragons|Edith Nesbit
"They were my brothers and sisters; I remember them," said the Cockatrice.
Moonshine & Clover|Laurence Housman
So it toys with leviathan, and 'lays its hand on the cockatrice den,' and my text is an instance of this.
Expositions of Holy Scripture|Alexander Maclaren

Edmund had run back to the cockatrice, and it had told him what to do.
The Book of Dragons|Edith Nesbit

British Dictionary definitions for cockatrice

cockatrice

/ (ˈkɒkətrɪs, -ˌtraɪs) /

noun

a legendary monster, part snake and part cock, that could kill with a glance

another name for basilisk (def. 1)

Word Origin for cockatrice

C14: from Old French cocatris, from Medieval Latin cocatrix, from Late Latin calcātrix trampler, tracker (translating Greek ikhneumon ichneumon), from Latin calcāre to tread, from calx heel

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for cockatrice

cockatrice

late 14c., from Old French cocatriz, altered (by influence of coq) from Late Latin *calcatrix, from Latin calcare "to tread" (from calx (1) "heel"), as translation of Greek ikhneumon, literally "tracker, tracer."

In classical writings, an Egyptian animal of some sort, the mortal enemy of the crocodile, which it tracks down and kills. This vague sense became hopelessly confused in the Christian West, and in England the word ended up applied to the equivalent of the basilisk. A serpent hatched from a cock's egg, it was fabled to kill by its glance and could be slain only by tricking it into seeing its own reflection. Belief in them persisted even among the educated because the word was used in the KJV several times to translate a Hebrew word for "serpent." In heraldry, a beast half cock, half serpent.