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woodcock definition

wood·cock (-käk′)

noun pl. woodcocks -·cocks′ or woodcock -·cock′

  1. a migratory European shorebird (Scolopax rusticola) with short legs and a long bill, of the same family (Scolopacidae) as snipe: it is hunted as game
  2. ☆ a smaller game bird (Philohela minor) of the same family that frequents bogs and swampy places of E North America
  3. Obsolete a fool; dupe

Etymology: ME wodekoc < OE wuducoc < wudu, wood + coc, a cock

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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