rooster
Americannoun
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roosters
plural
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the male of domestic fowl and certain game birds; cock.
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a representation of this bird, used as an emblem of the Democratic Party from 1842 to 1874.
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Informal. a cocky person.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of rooster
Explanation
A rooster is a male chicken. If your cute baby chick grows up to crow loudly first thing every morning, he's probably a rooster. The word rooster is an American invention, inspired by the rooster's habit of roosting, or standing up on a perch while sleeping or while on the lookout for danger. In the UK, a rooster is more likely to be called a cock or cockerel. In a flock of birds, the rooster's job is to defend the chickens and their nests from predators and other roosters.
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:
Wacky animal sidekicks once felt vibrant in a holistic world of artifice; here, a goggle-eyed rooster just looks diseased.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026
Mr. Chalamet, who is onscreen virtually nonstop and moves around it like a rooster on fire, can certainly turn on the charm when he wants to, as in “Wonka.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 24, 2025
The colorful space, dominated by a giant rooster mural and pulsing with salsa, draws inspiration from across Latin America and the Caribbean.
From Salon ● Sep. 29, 2025
But the woman also had a rooster on her thumb, showing "an intriguing style with a certain uniqueness," says Dr Caspari.
From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2025
When an author wanted a character to be awoken at dawn, Colin figured the author just used the literary tradition of the crowing rooster to make it happen.
From "An Abundance of Katherines" by John Green
Nearby were soft-toy footballers resembling Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo, fluffy roosters in France polos and teddy bears in Spain kits.
From Barron's ● Jun. 10, 2026
The gate is adorned with a sculpted round medallion of Oseguera’s trademark, two roosters.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 19, 2026
He was among five horses, four dogs, six puppies, 45 hens and roosters that were adopted by either Riverside County rescue partners or private adopters, according Sgt.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 28, 2025
“Once those roosters and hens go down, you have no vaccine,” Bright said.
From Salon ● Jun. 1, 2024
While the roosters shrieked, the hens scrambled helter-skelter, commenting shrilly on the action: they clucked hysterically; they cackled obscenely; sometimes their alarmed voices were like machine guns.
From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols
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.
