coxcomb
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English
[edit]
Etymology
[edit]From Middle English cokke’s comb.
Pronunciation
[edit]
Noun
[edit]coxcomb (plural coxcombs)
- (historical) The cap of a court jester, adorned with a red stripe.
- The fleshy red pate of a rooster.
- (by extension) A foolish or conceited person; a dandy.
- a. 1746, Jonathan Swift, “VII. Another, Written upon a Window where there was No Writing before.”, in Thomas Sheridan, compiler, The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, D.D., Dean of St. Patrick’s, Dublin. […] In Nineteen Volumes, new corrected and revised edition, volume VII, London: Printed [by Nichols and Son] for J[oseph] Johnson [et al.], published 1801, →OCLC, page 361:
- Thanks to my stars, I once can see / A window here from scribbling free! / Here no conceited coxcombs pass, / To scratch their paltry drabs on glass; / Nor party-fool is calling names, / Or dealing crowns to George and James.
- 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter XIII, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume III, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book VII, page 112:
- [F]or tho' I am afraid the Doctor was a little of a Coxcomb, he might be nevertheleſs very much of a Surgeon.
- 2010, Pseudonymous Bosch, This Isn't What It Looks Like:
- And she nearly started a fight between two young fops in plumed hats and flouncy collars: "Clay-brained coxcomb!" "Mewling milk-livered maggot!"
Alternative forms
[edit]- (pate of a rooster): cockscomb
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]court jester's cap
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pate of a rooster