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woodcock

American  
[wood-kok] / ˈwʊdˌkɒk /

noun

woodcocks plural
  1. either of two plump, short-legged migratory game birds of variegated brown plumage, the Eurasian Scolopax rusticola and the smaller American Philohela minor.

  2. any of various pileated or ivory-billed woodpeckers.

  3. Archaic. a simpleton.


woodcock British  
/ ˈwʊdˌkɒk /

noun

  1. an Old World game bird, Scolopax rusticola, resembling the snipe but larger and having shorter legs and neck: family Scolopacidae (sandpipers, etc), order Charadriiformes

  2. a related North American bird, Philohela minor

  3. obsolete a simpleton

"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

Other Word 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.

New Yorkers can’t get enough of the strutting woodcock.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 9, 2026

While migration and reproduction take a lot of energy, American woodcock reduce the cost in other ways, Slezak said.

From Science Daily • Apr. 19, 2024

A bird conservation charity said it had been locked out of its Twitter account for eight days after posting several tweets about woodcock.

From BBC • Jan. 31, 2023

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

Two significant discoveries have now been made about the woodcock.

From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson

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