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  1. woodcock love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. Either of two related game birds, Scolopax rusticola of the Old World or Philohela minor of North America, having brownish plumage, short legs, and a long bill.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. One of two distinct birds of the family Scolopacidæ, closely related to the true snipe (Gallinago). In Europe, Scolopax rusticida (wrongly spelled rusticola), a very common bird of the northerly parts of the Old World, one of the largest and best-known representatives of its family, highly esteemed as a game-bird, its flesh being delicious, while the thick cover it inhabits and the rapidity of its flight test the nerve and skill of the sportsman. It is migratory, breeding chiefly in the higher latitudes, nesting upon the ground in a dry spot under cover, and laying four eggs. This woodcock is over 12 inches in length, and weighs from 10 to 15 ounces; the plumage is intimately variegated with brown, black, russet, and tawny. It is seldom seen in America, and only as a straggler from Europe.
  2. n. The large black pileated woodpecker, or logcock, Hylotomus (or Ceophlæus) pileatus. See cut under pileated.
  3. n. In conchology, a woodcock-shell: more fully called thorny woodcock. Also called Venus'scomb.
  4. n. A simpleton: in allusion to the facility with which the European woodcock al lows itself to be taken in springes or in nets set for it in the glades.
  5. n. The American woodcock, Philohela. minor: a book-name.
  6. n. A woodcock-shell, as Murex haustellum.

Wiktionary

  1. n. Any of several wading birds in the genus Scolopax, of the family Scolopacidae, characterised by a long slender bill and cryptic brown and blackish plumage.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. (Zoöl.) Any one of several species of long-billed limicoline birds belonging to the genera Scolopax and Philohela. They are mostly nocturnal in their habits, and are highly esteemed as game birds.
  2. n. obsolete Fig.: A simpleton.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. game bird of the sandpiper family that resembles a snipe

Etymologies

  1. From wood + cock (Wiktionary)

Examples

  • “Why can you be assured that snipe, grouse, partridge, pheasant or woodcock is what it is, but a chicken is more likely to be a jellied flying rat?”

    Commenter Demands Real Shrimps or Refund from Cafe Duke | Midtown Lunch - Finding Lunch in the Food Wasteland of NYC's Midtown Manhattan

  • “The 28 shines brightest at modest ranges: in woodcock thickets, quail piney woods, and dove fields, and on skeet and five-stand setups.”

    Deadly Darlings

  • ““These little brown snipe you call woodcock, ” he began; “we bagged nine brace, d’you see?”

    The Fighting Chance

  • “I would send him sometimes snipe or golden plover from Kiltartan bog or woodcock from the hazel woods at Coole, hoping to tempt him with something that might better nourish the worn body than the little custard pudding that was used to serve him for his two days 'dinner, because of that "horrible dyspepsia" that often makes those who have been long in prison live starving after their release, mocked with the sight of food.”

    Our Irish Theatre: A Chapter of Autobiography

  • “The little bird in the middle with the long beak has been known as the woodcock, but I notice it has nostrils in the end of that beak--?”

    Animal toys

  • “Mrs. Carnaby loved a good dinner right well, a dinner unplagued by hospitable cares; when a woodcock was her own to dwell on, and pretty little teeth might pick a pretty little bone at ease.”

    Mary Anerley

  • “While the woodcock is an easy bird to hit, with a soft flight like an owl, and if you do miss him he will probably pitch down and give you another shot.”

    Simon & Schuster: Hemingway on Hunting

  • “If my childhood memories of country life are still reliable, a woodcock is a shy creature with a soft, mothlike flight (la bécasse des bois in French), whereas le coq de bruyère is a capercailzie or grouse, a species noted for the flamboyant mating behavior of the male birds.”

    Polymorphic Peter Pan

  • “The woodcock is a very handsome bird with its dark mottled brown plumage, long bill, and large, full, black eyes.”

    Country Walks of a Naturalist with His Children

  • “Still better sport is offered by a variety of solitary snipe as big as a small woodcock, which is plentiful in this country, and which is flown at with a very small, agile, and highly-trained hawk with an almost red tail.”

    Allan Quatermain

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hypernyms (3)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. limicoline bird
  1. shore bird
  1. shorebird

hyponyms (5)

Words that are more specific

  1. scolopax rusticola
  1. american woodcock
  1. eurasian woodcock
  1. woodcock snipe
  1. philohela minor

same context (24)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. ptarmigan
  2. partridge
  3. quail
  4. flamingo
  1. plover
  2. peacock
  3. venison
  4. heron
  1. curlew
  2. grouse
  3. parrakeet
  4. gannet
  1. bustard
  2. cockatoos
  3. francolin
  4. dove
  1. wader
  2. stork
  3. fowl
  4. pigeon
  1. widgeon
  2. raccoon
  3. roebuck
  4. hare

reverse dictionary (43)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. woodcock snipe
  2. philohela minor
  3. scolopax rusticola
  4. eurasian woodcock
  5. american woodcock
  6. woodcock-snipe
  7. wood-snipe
  8. woodcock-shell
  1. woodcock
  2. fall
  3. longbill
  4. cockshut
  5. timberdoodle
  6. trail
  7. woodcock-fish
  8. woodcock-owl
  1. woodcock-pilot
  2. bogsucker
  3. glade net
  4. mud-snipe
  5. night-partridge
  6. night-peck
  7. shrups
  8. game bird
  1. becasse
  2. cocker
  3. ground-keeper
  4. hookumpake
  5. mudsucker
  6. night partridge
  7. pewee
  8. pileated woodpecker
  1. timber doodle
  2. whistling snipe
  3. wood hen
  4. bird
  5. cock
  6. flush
  7. red-breasted
  8. rusticola
  1. scolopax
  2. snipefish
  3. Venus's comb

tags (4)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. bird
  1. ooo
  1. fool
  1. gastronomy

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Word visualization

Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘woodcock’.

Comments

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  • reesetee What does he have againsts weird-eyed living things? Oct 1, 2009

  • chained_bear Yes, Brillat-Savarin made me arm myself to defend my little dog's one-eyed-ness. :) Which I will do again! (Mostly because he's really really cute.) Sep 30, 2009

  • reesetee All right, now. Is this the same guy who likened dessert without cheese to a beautiful one-eyed woman? Away with him! No cooked woodcocks here! Sep 30, 2009

  • hernesheir "A woodcock is only in its full glory when roasted actually before the very eyes of the hunter, above all, the hunter who shot it." - French gastronome Brillat-Savarin Sep 24, 2009

  • bilby A de-wooded cooked cock shock! Dec 21, 2007

  • reesetee Oh, I hope not. That might mean it's been dressed and cooked! Also, are your eyes way back past your ears? Dec 21, 2007

  • bilby I often feel as though I'm an odd little fellow at heart. Do you think I might have swallowed a woodcock? Dec 21, 2007

  • reesetee An odd little fellow. :-) Dec 21, 2007

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‘woodcock’ has been looked up 2469 times, loved by 1 person, added to 13 lists, commented on 8 times, and has a Scrabble score of 20.