Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A pouch at the crotch of the tight-fitting breeches worn by men in the 15th and 16th centuries.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In medieval male costume, a part of the hose in front, at the separation of the legs, made loose or in the form of flap, or in some cases separately attached: it was rendered necessary by the extreme tightness of the garment from about 1475 to 1550.
- n. In carriage-trimming, a half-circle at the lower front corner of a carriage top cast solid with the side-quarter or sewed on: used to cover slat-irons and prop-post.
Wiktionary
- n. A part of male dress in front of the breeches to cover the male genitals, sometimes made very conspicuous in former times.
- n. A conspicuous protection for the male genitals in a suit of plate armor.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A part of male dress in front of the breeches, formerly made very conspicuous.
WordNet 3.0
- n. (15th-16th century) a flap for the crotch of men's tight-fitting breeches
Etymologies
- From Middle English cod (“scrotum”) + piece. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English codpece : cod, bag, scrotum (from Old English codd, bag) + pece, piece; see piece. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Och, "the figure added, in a different tone," and did you know as your codpiece are open? ”
Villains by Necessity
“I've also heard he had a cuttlefish in his codpiece, which is likely where that cod-fishing rumor came from...he was trying to correct the fit!”
“For the codpiece is the principal and most especial piece of armour that a warrior doth carry; and therefore do I maintain even to the fire (exclusively, understand you me), that no Turks can properly be said to be armed men, in regard that codpieces are by their law forbidden to be worn.”
Five books of the lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel
“Will you maintain, quoth Pantagruel, that the codpiece is the chief piece of a military harness?”
Five books of the lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel
“He praises many un praiseworthy things besides debt: his praise of the codpiece is a considered essay on generation, as well as an ironic commentary on that segment of a man's trousers.”
“I played Iago's codpiece in Othello, and I gave my Bottom nightly for two months - and it was very well-received, I might add - in a production of Midsummer Night's Dream.”
“Perhaps the righties would be more amenable if Obama started wearing a flight suit w/matching codpiece when making speeches …”
Think Progress » Tea Party sign threatens gun violence if health care passes.
“At the after-party I put him in his place by saying“Is that an erect annual plant in your codpiece, Mr. Flax, or are you just glad to see me?””
“At the after-party I put him in his place by saying “Is that an erect annual plant in your codpiece, Mr. Flax, or are you just glad to see me?””
“I saw the codpiece, but memory bleached it to white.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘codpiece’.
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*e?e
Words whose last and third-to-last letters are both "e".
here, eke, were, complete, mete, replete, adhere, where, mere, sphere, austere, aesthete and 99 more...
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Cod
cod, code, codex, codfish, codling, inshore cod, shoal-water cod, cultus-cod, shelled peasecod, black cod, cod-liver oil, coddle and 80 more...
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Historical Costume Box
This is just sort of my "unsorted pit" of costumes to be organized later. It's a really broad topic, so right now, anything goes! Thanks for the contributions!
baldric, bliaut, coif, cote-hardie, farthingale, houppelande, partlet, tabard, kirtle, wimple, buskin, greatcoat and 33 more...
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Fun Words
Words that are fun to say....
gobbledygook, jings, crivens, hullabaloo, wheech, brouhaha, pizzazz, harum-scarum, namby-pamby, pussyfoot, frippery, pitter-patter and 333 more...
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135 Offensive Shakespearean Terms
135 Offensive Shakespearean Terms =)
artless, baggage, barnacle, bawdy, beef-witted, bladder, boil-brained, bootless, brazen, cankerblossom, churlish, churrish and 123 more...
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Words Covered in Faery Dust (C)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
cacophony, cad, cajole, calamity, camomile, camphor, candlemas, candy apple, canopy, canticle, caparison, caravan and 304 more...
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Compounds That Look Freakish
You know who you are, freakish compounds. Though very useful, some of these words just don't seem right together--or, their meanings are so far from what the two (or more) component words suggest t...
nightjar, bullfinch, grassquit, bananaquit, ovenbird, waxwing, stonechat, wheatear, bushtit, wrentit, starthroat, godwit and 158 more...
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wordsmithing part deux
because wordsmith is not a verb.
enmity, incarnate, chignon, nape, solitude, nocturne, decorum, warren, svelte, interstice, serene, charlotte and 488 more...
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Slings and Arrows: Shakespearean Insults
artless, baudy, beslubbering, bootless, churlish, cockered, clouted, craven, dankish, dissembling, droning, errant and 116 more...
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Below the Belt
Anything worn from the waist down.
chausses, pantaloons, britches, trossers, buckskins, chaps, galligaskins, gregs, gaskins, breeches, knee breeches, knee pants and 93 more...
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Spod's Words
corpulent, squidge, squiffy, sinuosity, ebullient, finger, penetrate, stimulate, recalcitrant, recidivist, dunnock, rococo and 152 more...
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Thunderfoot's Words
lugubrious, salacious, vituperative, foist, foment, embolism, stygian, mellifluous, bildungsroman, shirk, crone, elide and 173 more...
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nfk9595's Words
magnetohydrodynamics, bovine, epistle, gargantuan, kerfuffle, verbiage, morose, coup de main, elan, achtung, uber, verboten and 497 more...
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He was a verray, parfit gentil knyght
my favourite era
feudal, peasant, vassal, serf, medieval, fief, chivalry, yeoman, joust, primogeniture, wimple, abbey and 56 more...
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funny articles of clothing
cravat, cummerbund, ascot, bustle, corset, doublet, hauberk, haubergeon, bolo tie, ruff, chemise, girdle and 19 more...
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humorous
shrubbery, plonk, lugubrious, lederhosen, pantaloons, nincompoop, pontiff, aardvark, codpiece, chunter, fjords, dastardly
Tweets
Looking for tweets for codpiece.
bilby Speaking of timely, I just checked the BBC news headlines and the top one was 'Junk alert for space station crew'. Mar 13, 2009
chained_bear P.S. How timely. Mar 13, 2009
chained_bear "... but that kind of subtlety isn't Snyder's strong suit, which is obvious the first time we see Dr. Manhattan wander across the screen in the nude, with his giant blue junk flapping in the apocalyptic breeze—another misguided sop to the novel and its R-rated sensibility. Apparently, loyalty means never having to say, 'For God's sake, put on a codpiece.'"
—Devin Gordon, "Till Death Do Us Part," Newsweek (March 9, 2009), 61 Mar 13, 2009
brtom Enter Magee Mor Matthew, a rugged rough rugheaded kern, in strossers with a buttoned codpiece, his nether stocks bemired with clauber of ten forests, a wand of wilding in his hand.
Joyce, Ulysses, 9 Jan 5, 2007