cockscomb
nounEtymology From Middle English cokkes comb; equivalent to cock + -s- + comb.
1
The fleshy red crest of a rooster.
2
A red cap once worn by court jesters.
3
A yellow rattle, Rhinanthus minor (flowering plant native to Eurasia).
4
An annual garden plant (Celosia argentea var. cristata, syn. Celosia cristata), having showy red clusters of flowers.
- She saw a square picture framed in the window, two whitewashed cottages each with a little winding path, a bed of red and yellow cockscomb, a sloping field, a row of gum-trees, a child in a blue sunbonnet carrying a basket.1929, M. Barnard Eldershaw, A House is Built, Chapter VII, Section xi:
5
Archaic A conceited dandy.
- Derived terms
- cockscombed, common cockscomb, garden cockscomb, plumed cockscomb, silver cockscomb, yellow cockscomb