spatch-cock, spatchcock, n.
(ˈspætʃkɒk)
[See quot. 1785 and dispatch n. 12.]
1. A fowl split open and grilled after being killed, plucked, and dressed in a summary fashion. Also attrib.
Orig. in Irish use, later chiefly Anglo-Indian.
| 1785 Grose Dict. Vulgar T., Spatch cock, abbreviation of a dispatch cock, an Irish dish upon any sudden occasion. It is a hen just killed from the roost, or yard, and immediately skinned, split, and broiled. 1819 Moore Mem. (1853) II. 317 We had a good deal of laughing at an Irishman who was of our party, on account of a bull he had made at breakfast, and which we called ‘half a nightingale’—a sort of ‘spatch-cock nightingale’. 1823 ― Fables, Holy Alliance i. 86 Proud Prussia's double bird of prey, Tame as a spatch-cock, slunk away. 1851 R. F. Burton Goa 258 Presently the ‘butler’ informs you that your breakfast, a spatchcock, or a curry with eggs,..is awaiting you. 1875 I. L. Bird Sandwich Isl. (1880) 99 Supper was ready for us;..the spatchcock and salmon reminded me of home. |
2. (See quot.)
| 1901 Bradley Highw. & B. Lake District 62 Any official..would have run a grave risk of being made a spatchcock of, or in other words, of his head being stuck in a rabbit⁓hole, and his legs staked to the ground. |