ˈgame-cock
[f. game n. + cock n.1]
A cock bred and trained for fighting, or of the breed suitable for the sport of cock-fighting.
| 1677 Wycherley Plain Dealer iv. ii, Young lovers, like game-cocks, are made bolder by being kept without light. 1693 Locke Educ. §145 They..managed the Dispute as fiercely as two Game-Cocks in the Pit. 1814 W. Sketchley (title), The Cocker: containing every information to the breeders and amateurs of that noble bird, the Game Cock. 1837 W. Irving Capt. Bonneville (1849) 27 He is like a game-cock among the common roosters of the poultry-yard. |
| fig. 1727 Gay Fables i. Eleph. & Bookseller 76 No author ever spar'd a brother, Wits are game-cocks to one another. a 1895 Ld. C. E. Paget Autobiog. iv. (1896) 80, I consoled myself with the feeling that, at all events, he was an old gamecock, and would do his country credit if he went into action. |