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cockerel

[kok-er-uh l, kok-ruh l]
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noun
  1. a young domestic cock.
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Origin of cockerel

First recorded in 1400–50, cockerel is from the late Middle English word cokerelle. See cock1, -rel
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for cockerel

Historical Examples

  • Little you know, my cockerel, how facile a brain your 'bus so lightly bears.

    Free Air

    Sinclair Lewis

  • Thought some o' takin' out a policy o' insurance on my cockerel.

    The Village Convict

    Heman White Chaplin

  • Then he said: 'Poultry, cockerel, now I will do the like by thee.'

    The Sundering Flood

    William Morris

  • A single sound, like the scream of a cockerel, escaped from Hedvig.

    Egholm and his God

    Johannes Buchholtz

  • Still, Master Paul, thine uncle was not so young as thou, my cockerel.

British Dictionary definitions for cockerel

cockerel

noun
  1. a young domestic cock, usually less than a year old
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Word Origin

C15: diminutive of cock 1
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 cockerel

n.

"young cock," mid-15c. (late 12c. as a surname), apparently a diminutive of cock (n.1). Despite the form, no evidence that it is from French.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper