Difference between revisions of "Cock"

<p> COCK, n. </p> 1. The male of birds, particularly of gallinaceous or domestic fowls, which having no appropriate or distinctive name, are called dunghill fowls or barn-door fowls. 2. A weather-cock a vane in shape of a cock. It is usually called a weather-cock. 3. A spout an instrument to draw out or discharge liquor from a cask, vat or pipe so named from its projection. 4. The projecting corner of a hat. 5. A small conical pile of hay, so shaped for shedding rain called in [[England]] a cop. When hay is dry and rolled together for carting, the heaps are not generally called cocks, at least not in New England. A large conical pile is called a stack. 6. The style or gnomon of a dial. 7. The needle of a balance. 8. The piece which covers the balance in a clock or watch. 9. The notch of an arrow. 10. The part of a musket or other fire arm, to which a flint is attached, and which, being impelled by a spring, strikes fire, and opens the pan at the same time. 11. A small boat. It is now called a cock-boat, which is tautology, as cock itself is a bot. 12. A leader a chief man. <p> Sir Andrew is the cock of the club. </p> 13. Cock-crowing the time when cocks crow in the morning. <p> [[Cock]] a hoop, or cock on the hoop, a phrase denoting triumph triumphant exulting. </p> <p> Cock and a bull, a phrase denoting tedious trifling stories. </p> <p> COCK, </p> 1. To set erect to turn up as, to cock the nose or ears. 2. To set the brim of a hat so as to make sharp corners or points or to set up with an air of pertness. 3. To make up hay in small conical piles. 4. To set or draw back the cock of a gun, in order to fire. <p> COCK, </p> 1. To hold up the head to strut to look big, pert, or menacing. 2. To train or use fighting cocks. 3. To cocker.

<p> '''(1):''' (v. t.) To set on one side in a pert or jaunty manner. </p> <p> '''(2):''' (v. t.) To turn (the eye) obliquely and partially close its lid, as an expression of derision or insinuation. </p> <p> '''(3):''' (v. t.) To set erect; to turn up. </p> <p> '''(4):''' (n.) The indicator of a balance. </p> <p> '''(5):''' (n.) The notch of an arrow or crossbow. </p> <p> '''(6):''' (n.) The hammer in the lock of a firearm. </p> <p> '''(7):''' (v. t.) To draw the hammer of (a firearm) fully back and set it for firing. </p> <p> '''(8):''' (v. t.) To shape, as a hat, by turning up the brim. </p> <p> '''(9):''' (v. i.) To strut; to swagger; to look big, pert, or menacing. </p> <p> '''(10):''' (v. i.) To draw back the hammer of a firearm, and set it for firing. </p> <p> '''(11):''' (v. t.) To put into cocks or heaps, as hay. </p> <p> '''(12):''' (n.) A small boat. </p> <p> '''(13):''' (n.) A corruption or disguise of the word God, used in oaths. </p> <p> '''(14):''' (n.) The style of gnomon of a dial. </p> <p> '''(15):''' (n.) A faucet or valve. </p> <p> '''(16):''' (n.) The crow of a cock, esp. the first crow in the morning; cockcrow. </p> <p> '''(17):''' (n.) A chief man; a leader or master. </p> <p> '''(18):''' (n.) A vane in the shape of a cock; a weathercock. </p> <p> '''(19):''' (n.) The male of birds, particularly of gallinaceous or domestic fowls. </p> <p> '''(20):''' (n.) The bridge piece which affords a bearing for the pivot of a balance in a clock or watch. </p> <p> '''(21):''' (n.) A small concial pile of hay. </p> <p> '''(22):''' (n.) The act of cocking; also, the turn so given; as, a cock of the eyes; to give a hat a saucy cock. </p>

<p> <strong> COCK </strong> . &nbsp; Matthew 26:34; &nbsp; Matthew 26:74 , &nbsp; Mark 13:35; &nbsp; Mark 14:30; &nbsp; Mark 14:72 , &nbsp; Luke 22:34; &nbsp; Luke 22:60-61 , &nbsp; John 13:30; &nbsp; John 18:27 . Cocks and hens were probably unknown in [[Palestine]] until from two to three centuries before Christ’s time. In the famous painted tomb at Marissa (see Mareshah), a work of about b.c. 200, we have the cock depicted. Cocks and hens were introduced from Persia. The absence of express mention of then from the Law, and the fact that it is a ‘clean’ bird, have made it possible for the Jews for many centuries to sacrifice, these birds on the eve of the Day of [[Atonement]] a cock for each male and a hen for each female in the household. Talmudic tradition finds references to the cock in &nbsp; Isaiah 22:17 , &nbsp; Job 38:36 , and &nbsp; Proverbs 30:31 , but all these are very doubtful. The ‘ <strong> cock-crowing </strong> ’ was the name of the 3rd watch of the night, just before the dawn, in the time of our Lord. During this time the cocks crow at irregular intervals. </p> <p> E. W. G. Masterman. </p>

<p> "Cockcrowing" was the third watch of the four watches introduced by the Romans. (See [[Watches]] .) The Jews originally had but three. The first ended at 9, the second at 12, the third or" cockcrowing" at 3, and the fourth at 6 o'clock a.m. (&nbsp;Mark 13:35). The second cockcrowing (&nbsp;Mark 14:72), which marked Peter's third denial of Jesus, was probably at the beginning of the fourth watch between 3 and 4 in the morning, not long before the first day dawn, just when our Lord was being led bound to [[Caiaphas]] across the court where Peter was standing. The Mishna, states that "cocks were not bred at Jerusalem because of the holy things." </p> <p> But Peter could easily hear their shrill crow on mount Olivet, only a half-mile off from where he was in the porch of the high priest's palace, in the stillness of night. Moreover, the restriction could only apply to the Jews, not to the Romans who used fowl for food. The first crowing being fainter in the distance did not awaken his slumbering conscience; but the second with its loud sound was the crowing which alone is recorded by Matthew (&nbsp;Matthew 26:34), Luke (&nbsp;Luke 22:34), and John (&nbsp;John 13:38), being that which roused him to remember bitterly his Lord's neglected warning. </p>

<p> Though this bird is too well known to need any account being given of him, yet being rendered so memorable in Scripture, from the circumstance of the apostle Peter's denial of Christ, I cannot pass it by without remarking, in allusion to that striking event, how slender the means which the Lord is pleased sometimes to make use of, to answer the most important purposes! The crowing of a cock is enough, in the Lord's hand, to accomplish the Lord's design. No one but Peter understood what the crowing of this cock meant; but to him it became more powerful than the sound of thunder. Such are the slenderest events in common life, when the Lord commissions them to be his messengers! Some of the [[Fathers]] have drawn a resemblance between the crowing of the cock, and the ministry of God's word. For as Peter heard the first crowing of the cock without the least emotion, so do men hear the word of God, when unaccompanied with grace, untouched and unconcerned. But when that word of God is sent home to the heart, by the powerful conviction of the Spirit of God, like the eye of Jesus which looked upon Peter, as the cock crew the second time, then the word is rendered effectual, and, like Peter, the sinner is led forth to weep bitterly. (&nbsp;Luke 22:61) </p>

<p> [[Mentioned]] only in connection with the denial of Peter, &nbsp;Matthew 26:34,74,75; and with the 'cock crowing,' a division of time at which the Lord may come, &nbsp;Mark 13:35 : this corresponds to the third watch of the night, and would be about 3 o'clock, A.M. </p>

<p> <b> COCK. </b> —See Animals, p. 64a, and following article. </p>

<p> ( '''''Ἀλέκτωρ''''' , literally ''Wakeful'' ) ''.'' It is somewhat singular that this bird (and poultry in general) should not be distinctly noticed in the Hebrew Scriptures, especially as rearing gallinaceous fowls was an object of considerable economical importance in Egypt, and their flesh one of the principal resources for the table in every part of Southern and Western Asia. It is true, the date when the practice of obtaining them by artificial heat commenced in Egypt is sufficiently disputable, and birds of the genus Gallus, properly so called, are not indigenous in Western Asia, but belong in their original condition to lower India, Indo-China, and the great islands of Austral-Asia. Several species, apparently distinct, are still found wild in the forests and jungles of India, and two at least, ''Gallus Sonneratii'' and ''G. Stanleyi,'' are abundant in the woods of the Western Ghauts, to which our familiar fowl bear so close a resemblance that naturalists consider the former to be their original. [[Domestic]] poultry have existed in Hindoostan from the remotest antiquity; probably much earlier than the twelfth century B.C.; for in the ''Institutes Of Menu,'' which Sir [[William]] Jones assigns to that age, we read of "the breed of the towncock," and of the practice of cock- fighting (5:12; 9:222). </p> <p> When the cock found its way to Western Asia and Europe we have no record. Fowl of plumage so gorgeous, of size so noble, of flesh so sapid, of habits so domestic, of increase so prolific, would doubtless early be carried along the various tracks of Oriental commerce. There is no trace of it, so far as we are aware, on the monuments of Pharaonic Egypt, but we find the cock figured in those of Assyria. In a hunting and shooting scene depicted at Khorsabad (Botta, pl. 108-114), the scene is laid in a forest whose characteristics seem to indicate a mountain region, such as Media or Armenia. Much game is represented, including many kinds of birds, one of which seems to be the pheasant. But the most interesting, is a large bird, which appears from its form, gait, and arching tail to be our common cock; it is walking on the ground amidst the trees. So far as this is evidence, it would go to prove that the fowl, in a wild state, existed at that period in Western Asia, though now unknown on this side the Indus. The cock and hen are distinctly represented in the Xanthian sculptures, of an era probably contemporaneous with the Khorsabad palace of Nineveh. They appear also on Etruscan paintings, having probably a much higher antiquity (Mrs. Gray's Etruria, p. 28, 45). </p> <p> The early Greeks and Romans figure them on their coins and gems, and speak of them as perfectly familiar objects, with no allusion to their introduction. They had even found their way into Britain at some unknown period long anterior to the Roman invasion; for [[Caesar]] tells us with surprise that the Britons did not think it right to eat the goose or the hen, though they bred both for the pleasure of keeping them (Bell. Gall. lib. 5). This is a very interesting allusion, since we are compelled to refer their introduction into that island to the agency of the Phoenicians, who traded to [[Cornwall]] for tin centuries before Rome was built. Under these circumstances, their absence from Egypt, where in modern times they have been artificially bred to so immense an extent, becomes a remarkable and unaccountable fact. They were, indeed, it may be surmised, unknown in Egypt when the [[Mosaic]] law was promulgated, and, though imported soon after, there always remained in an undetermined condition, neither clean nor unclean, but liable to be declared either by decisions swayed by prejudice, or by fanciful analogies; perhaps chiefly the latter; because poultry are devourers of unclean animals, scorpions, scolopendra, small lizards, and young serpents of every kind. But, although the rearing of common fowls was not encouraged by the Hebrew population, it is evidently drawing inferences beyond their proper bounds when it is asserted, (See [[Cock-Crowing]]), that they were unknown in Jerusalem, where civil wars and Greek and Roman dominion had greatly affected the national manners. (See [[Fowl]]). </p> <p> In the denials of Peter, described in the four Gospels, where the cock- crowing (see below) is mentioned by our Lord, the words are plain and direct; not, we think, admitting of cavil, or of being taken to signify anything but the real voice of the bird, the '''''Ἀλεκτοροφωνία''''' '','' as it is expressed in &nbsp;Mark 13:35, in its literal acceptation, and not as denoting the sound of a trumpet, so called because it proclaimed a watch in the night; for to what else than a real hen and her brood does our [[Savior]] allude in &nbsp;Luke 13:34, where the text is proof that the image of poultry Was familiar to the disciples, and consequently that they were not rare in Judaea? To the present time in the East, and on the Continent of Europe, this bird is still often kept, as amongst the Celtes (Caesar, ''Bell. Gall.'' 4, 12), not so much for food as for the purpose of announcing the approach and dawn of day. (See [[Hen]]). </p>

<p> ''''' kok ''''' ( ἀλέκτωρ , <i> ''''' āléktōr ''''' </i> ; Latin <i> gallus </i> ): There is no reference in the Old Testament to domesticated poultry, which was probably first introduced into Judea after the Roman conquest. See [[Chicken]] . The cock is several times mentioned in the New Testament and always with reference to its habit of crowing in eastern countries with such regularity as to be almost clocklike. The first full salute comes almost to the minute at half-past eleven, the second at half-past one, and the third at dawn. So uniformly do the cocks keep time and proclaim these three periods of night that we find cock-crowing mentioned as a regular division of time: "Watch therefore: for ye know not when the lord of the house cometh, whether at even, or at midnight, or at cockcrowing, or in the morning" (&nbsp;Mark 13:35 ). Jesus had these same periods of night in mind when he warned Peter that he would betray Him. &nbsp;Matthew 26:34; &nbsp;Luke 22:34; &nbsp;John 13:38 , give almost identical wording of the warning. But in all his writing Mark was more explicit, more given to exact detail. [[Remembering]] the divisions of night as the cocks kept them, his record reads: "And Jesus saith unto him, Verily I say into thee, that thou today, even this night, before the cock crow twice, shalt deny me thrice" (&nbsp;Mark 14:30 ). See Chicken . It is hardly necessary to add that the cocks crow at irregular intervals as well as at the times indicated, according to the time of the year and the phase of the moon (being more liable to crow during the night if the moon is at the full), or if a storm threatens, or there is any disturbance in their neighborhood. </p>