Definitions

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

  • noun Any of various marine fishes of the family Gadidae, which includes the Atlantic cod and the haddock.
  • noun Archaic A husk or pod.
  • noun Archaic The scrotum.
  • noun Obsolete A bag.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To inclose in a cod.
  • To form an involucre; become a codling: said of an apple.
  • To make fun of or play practical jokes upon.
  • To play practical jokes.
  • noun A bag.
  • noun A pillow; a bolster; a cushion.
  • noun Any husk, shell, envelop, or case containing the seeds of a plant; a pod.
  • noun The scrotum.
  • noun The belly; paunch.
  • noun plural The testicles.
  • noun The narrow part at the extremity of a trawl-net, usually 4 or 5 feet wide and 10 feet long. See trawl-net.
  • noun A practical joke; a guy; a grind.
  • noun The bearing of a car-axle; a bush.
  • To fish for cod.
  • noun The common English name of the Gadus morrhua, an anacanthine fish of the family Gadidæ, and its best-known representative.
  • noun A chiroid fish, Ophiodon elongatus, of the Pacific coasts of North America, universally called cod and codfish where the true cod is unknown. Also called cultus-cod.
  • noun A serranoid fish, Polyprion oxygeneios, of New Zealand, properly called hapuka.
  • noun In New Zealand, the rock-cod.
  • noun Misapplied at San Francisco to a sebastine fish, Sebastichthys flavidus, and about Puget Sound to a chiroid fish, Hexagrammus decagrammus.
  • noun A serranoid fish, Serranus (?) cuvieri, of South Africa.
  • noun A percophidoid flsh, Percis colias, of New Zealand.
  • An abbreviation of Codex.

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

  • noun engraving A husk; a pod.
  • noun obsolete A small bag or pouch.
  • noun The scrotum.
  • noun Prov. Eng. A pillow or cushion.
  • noun (Zoöl.) An important edible fish (Gadus morrhua), taken in immense numbers on the northern coasts of Europe and America. It is especially abundant and large on the Grand Bank of Newfoundland. It is salted and dried in large quantities.
  • noun the business of fishing for cod.
  • noun an eighteen-thread line used in catching codfish.

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

  • noun A marine fish of the family Gadidae.
  • noun A marine fish resembling a cod of the genus Gadus, such as the rock cod.
  • noun obsolete A bag.
  • noun obsolete A husk or integument; a pod.
  • noun The scrotum (also in plural).
  • noun A joke or an imitation.
  • noun A stupid or foolish person.
  • adjective Having the character of imitation; jocular. (now usually attributive, forming mostly compound adjectives).
  • verb slang, transitive, dialectal To attempt to deceive or confuse.

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

  • adjective payable by the recipient on delivery
  • verb harass with persistent criticism or carping
  • noun the vessel that contains the seeds of a plant (not the seeds themselves)
  • noun lean white flesh of important North Atlantic food fish; usually baked or poached
  • noun major food fish of Arctic and cold-temperate waters
  • adverb collecting the charges upon delivery
  • verb fool or hoax

Etymologies

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

[Middle English.]

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

[Middle English, from Old English codd.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Origin uncertain; perhaps ultimately the same as Etymology 1, above.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old English codd, from Proto-Germanic *kuddaz.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Origin unknown.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word cod.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • "I was so astonished that I stopped screeching. Never, never had anyone spoken to me in that tone before. I looked at him incredulously and saw his face convulsed with rage. It was only then I realised how God had codded me, listening to my my prayers for the safe return of this monster."

    - Frank O'Connor, 'My Oedipus Complex'.

    September 5, 2008

  • That'll put the fear of cod in you.

    September 6, 2008