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petcock

or pet cock

[pet-kok]
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noun
  1. a small valve or faucet, as for draining off excess or waste material from the cylinder of a steam engine or an internal-combustion engine.
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Origin of petcock

1860–65; pet, perhaps < French pet (see petard) + cock1
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for petcock

Historical Examples

  • One crawled in and settled down, and turned the petcock that inflated the cover.

    Space Tug

    Murray Leinster

British Dictionary definitions for petcock

petcock

noun
  1. a small valve for checking the water level in a steam boiler or draining condensed steam from the cylinder of a steam engine
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Word Origin

C19: from pet 1 or perhaps French pet, from péter to break wind + 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 petcock

n.

also pet-cock, 1864, from cock (n.2); the signification of the first element is uncertain.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper