ˈmoor-cock
[f. moor n.1 + cock n.1]
The male of the red grouse, Lagopus scoticus. Also occas. the blackcock, Tetrao tetrix.
| 1329–30 Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 16 In..xij Murkokes emptis. In..vij Murkokes. 1427 Sc. Acts Jas. I (1814) II. 16/2 Blak cokes gra hennys and mur cokes. 1567 Golding Ovid's Met. viii. (1593) 201 Now it is a meare And moorecockes, cootes, and cormorants do breed and nestle there. a 1695 Wood Oxford (O.H.S.) III. 157 Arms..argent, a chevron between 3 more-cocks sable. 1731 E. Albin Nat. Hist. Birds I. 23 The Red Game, or More-Cock Lagopus altera. 1780 Edmondson Her., Moor cock, the male of the black game, or large black grouse. 1850 J. Struthers Life Poet. Wks. I. p. xiv, The Scraigh of the paitrick, the birr of the muircock. 1899 Crockett Kit Kennedy 298 Moor-cocks were crowing in the hollows. |