rooster
nounUK /ˈɹuːstə/ · US /ˈɹustɚ/
Etymology From roost + -er. In the regions where it is used, displaced cock through taboo avoidance. Compare typologically Russian насе́дка (nasédka) (akin to наси́живать (nasíživatʹ), also akin to насе́ст (nasést)).
8 senses
- 1A male domestic chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) or…
- 2A bird or bat which roosts or is roosting.
- 3An informer.
- 4A violent or disorderly person.
- 5A powerful, prideful, or pompous person.
- 6A man.
- 7A wild violet, when used in a children's game based on…
- 8Legislation solely devised to benefit the legislators…
1
Australia, Canada, Kent, New Zealand, US A male domestic chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) or other gallinaceous bird.
- Their other dish […] contain'd a number of roast fowls—half a dozen, we suppose, & all roosters at this season no doubt.1772 March 14, A.G. Winslow, Diary:
- The produce of two hens and a cock, or rooster, as the Yankees term that bird.1836, Catharine Parr Traill, The Backwoods of Canada, page 308:
1 more example
- Chalk a circle for a rooster.1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 16]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part III [Nostos], page 616:
2
A bird or bat which roosts or is roosting.
- The more leisured flight of the roosters [sc. starlings] was in contrast to the steady procession of the migrants.1949, British Birds, 42, p. 323:
- Ground roosters like Northern Harriers may be subject to predation by Great-horned Owls […] but still larger perchers like herons and Ospreys use snags or posts in conspicuous places but are large enough to escape aerial predators.1999, Milton W. Weller, Wetland Birds: Habitat Resources and Conservation Implications:
3
Figuratively, Obsolete, Slang An informer.
4
Figuratively, Obsolete, Slang A violent or disorderly person.
5
Figuratively A powerful, prideful, or pompous person.
6
New Zealand, Figuratively A man.
7
US, Historical, Regional A wild violet, when used in a children's game based on cockfighting.
- In April they played Hens and Roosters, yoking their wild white and blue violets to see which would get its head pulled off.1946, Conrad Richter, The Fields, page 231:
- American demoralisation... has carried rooster into the halls of republican legislation, where it indicates a bill or proposed law which will remunerate the legislators.1869 July, Southern Review, page 54:
- Synonyms
- cock, informant, brawler, important person, cock of the walk, cock of the roost, man
- Derived terms
- cock rooster, rooster booster, roosterfish, roosterhood, roosterish, roosterless, roosterlike, roosterly, roosterness, rooster sauce, roostership, roostertail, rooster-tail
- Related terms
- roost, cock-a-doodle-doo
- Hyponyms
- cockerel
- Coordinate terms
- hen