cockerel
Americannoun
-
cockerels
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of cockerel
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English cokerelle, kokerelle; see origin at cock 1, -rel
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The video, which was partly recorded inside the prison, shows him caressing a fighting cockerel and freely chatting to fellow inmates.
From BBC ● Jun. 26, 2025
In Cambridge itself, a bronze cockerel looted in a British raid was removed from display at Jesus College, in 2016, and returned to Nigeria last month.
From BBC ● Nov. 25, 2021
After being looted, the cockerel was given to Jesus College in 1905 by the father of a student.
From Reuters ● Oct. 27, 2021
The sculpture of a cockerel was one of hundreds of Benin Bronzes that were pillaged from the once mighty Kingdom of Benin, located in what is now Nigeria.
From Reuters ● Oct. 27, 2021
Was this the boy in the mask who had strutted like a cockerel ahead of the others across St. Mark’s Square?
From "The Thief Lord" by Cornelia Funke
Harrison, the youngest of four children, previously lived with his parents Harold and Louise and the family's pet cockerels in a small house in Arnold Grove, Wavertree.
From BBC ● Nov. 30, 2021
People depend on the land, with dozens heading off to work in the fields as morning breaks, having been woken by cockerels.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 10, 2019
Critics say that backyard flock owners’ demand for day-old pullets, or female chicks, leads to more cockerels, or male chicks, being culled or slipping through to eventually wind up in need of homes or dumped.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 19, 2018
In the late 1960s, the International Dairy Federation paid Yudkin to conduct sugar studies in pigs, rats, cockerels, and humans.
From Slate ● Mar. 16, 2018
And we stood there, face to face, under the flat prairie sunlight, ridiculously like two cockerels silently estimating each other’s intentions.
From The Prairie Mother by Arthur E. Becher
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
