woodcock
Americannoun
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either of two plump, short-legged migratory game birds of variegated brown plumage, the Eurasian Scolopax rusticola and the smaller American Philohela minor.
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any of various pileated or ivory-billed woodpeckers.
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Archaic. a simpleton.
noun
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an Old World game bird, Scolopax rusticola, resembling the snipe but larger and having shorter legs and neck: family Scolopacidae (sandpipers, etc), order Charadriiformes
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a related North American bird, Philohela minor
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obsolete a simpleton
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of woodcock
before 1050; Middle English wodecok, Old English wuducoc. See wood 1, cock 1
Vocabulary lists containing woodcock
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:
New Yorkers can’t get enough of the strutting woodcock.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 9, 2026
"A lot of birds probably can't do it because they don't have these lower reproductive costs that woodcock have evolved to do," he said.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 19, 2024
They concluded the woodcock gets its brilliance from the microscopic structure of tiny barbs arranged in parallel like window blinds, increasing the feathers’ reflective surface area.
From Science Magazine ● Dec. 21, 2022
We startle a chunky little woodcock that's sheltering in the long grass and it twitters its indignation shrilly.
From BBC ● Jan. 2, 2020
Two significant discoveries have now been made about the woodcock.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
Food writing as politically incorrect and unabashedly chauvinistic is as rare these days as, say, the roasted woodcocks Liebling seems to have eaten by the dozen.
From Slate ● Nov. 22, 2017
There are dozens of Scolopacidae species spanning the globe, and while close to two dozen have "sandpiper" in their names, many more don't: godwits, woodcocks, stints, knots, yellowlegs, etc.
From The Verge ● Jun. 26, 2016
The Mighty Merlins knew from their reconnaissance that woodcocks started vocalizing about 4:30 a.m.
From Washington Post ● May 24, 2016
In fact, it has a strong and growing following among experienced bird hunters who go after quail, doves, woodcocks, grouse and snipe.
From Time Magazine Archive
We traverse fields and forests, walk through barren lands where quails and woodcocks fly up at our feet, and, after twelve miles of bushwhacking, enter the Plattekill State Forest.
From "On the Far Side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George
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.
