cocks

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of cock.

   The breeder entered three of his finest cocks in the county poultry show.

   The cocks on both flintlock pistols had been replaced with modern copies.

   Note

   Context does most of the work with this plural. Three cocks at a poultry show are roosters, and the cocks on a pair of flintlocks are hammers. Because the singular is also vulgar slang for the penis, the bare word can land as a crudity, as it does in William S. Burroughs's Naked Lunch (1959). Written the same, the verb's third-person form follows he or she.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of cock.

   Whenever someone mentions his old job, he cocks an eyebrow and says nothing.

   She cocks the crossbow, sets a bolt in the groove, and waits.

   Note

   Two families of meaning share this form: readying a weapon, and tilting something up or to one side. She cocks the crossbow; he cocks his hat or an eyebrow; a good pistol cocks smoothly, with no object at all. Cocking an eye in derision is dated, and in British and Irish slang the verb also means to have sex with someone or to ruin something.

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