Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A young rooster.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A young domestic cock; specifically, the male of the domestic fowl up to one year old. Both cockerel and pullet are specifically called chicks, as distinguished from fowls.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A young cock.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A young male chicken.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a young domestic cock; not older than one year

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English cokerel, diminutive of cok, cock; see cock.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English cockerelle, equivalent to cock +‎ -rel.

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Examples

  • "This cockerel is going to be the best thing I've seen all night, but I've already bought something," he said.

    Charity Begins With Home Furnishings Priya Rao 2010

  • Doubtless we shall all be confounded in due course, for examining the entrails of a recently slaughtered cockerel is no more reliable now than it was in Roman times.

    Archive 2007-07-29 2007

  • Doubtless we shall all be confounded in due course, for examining the entrails of a recently slaughtered cockerel is no more reliable now than it was in Roman times.

    Election News 2007

  • The cockerel is a popular motif in modernist art, symbolising regeneration, awakening and strength.

    The Guardian World News Mark Brown 2011

  • In one room entitled "Adieu myths", the exhibition also debunks the idea that the cockerel was a Gallic emblem, even if gallus in Latin means "cockerel" and "Gaul".

    Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph Henry Samuel 2011

  • In one room entitled "Adieu myths", the exhibition also debunks the idea that the cockerel was a Gallic emblem, even if gallus in Latin means "cockerel" and "Gaul".

    Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph Henry Samuel 2011

  • Although Clare felt that her cockerel was the best that she'd ever bred, she was unprepared for a phone call on Saturday lunchtime telling her that she'd won best of breed.

    FWi - All News 2009

  • In the kitchen, underneath the mirror and to the left of the etching of the cockerel was the word outspoken.

    Six Sentences 2008

  • One MDC supporter described it like plucking the feathers off a cockerel (the cockerel is the symbol of Zanu-PF).

    BBC News | News Front Page | World Edition 2008

  • One MDC supporter described it like plucking the feathers off a cockerel (the cockerel is the symbol of Zanu-PF).

    Top Stories - Google News 2008

Comments

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  • "Outflings my lord Stephen, giving the cry, and a tag and bobtail of all them after, cockerel, jackanapes, welsher, pilldoctor, punctual Bloom at heels with a universal grabbing at headgear, ashplants, bilbos, Panama hats and scabbards, Zermatt alpenstocks and what not."

    Joyce, Ulysses, 14

    January 27, 2007

  • This WeirdNet definition is fine, until you check its definition of cock.

    November 29, 2007