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cockcrow

or cock crow·ing

[kok-kroh or kok-kroh-ing]
See more synonyms for cockcrow on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. the time at which a cock characteristically crows; daybreak; dawn.
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Origin of cockcrow

1350–1400; Middle English. See cock1, crow2
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for cockcrow

Historical Examples

  • When he wakes at cockcrow the revellers are nearly all asleep.

    Symposium

    Plato

  • She was in the habit of waking them early in the morning, at cockcrow.

  • As for sleep, never at cockcrow was I more wakeful than at this moment to-night.

    Christmas Light

    Ethel Calvert Phillips

  • This morning, too, I arose (joyous and full of love) at cockcrow.

    Poor Folk

    Fyodor Dostoyevsky

  • The epistles shall be ready by night, and you shall ride at cockcrow.

    Pabo, The Priest

    Sabine Baring-Gould

British Dictionary definitions for cockcrow

cockcrow

cockcrowing

noun
  1. daybreak
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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