woodcock

[ woo d-kok ]
/ ˈwʊdˌkɒk /

noun, plural wood·cocks, (especially collectively) wood·cock for 1, 2.

either of two plump, short-legged migratory game birds of variegated brown plumage, the Eurasian Scolopax rusticola and the smaller American Philohela minor.
any of various pileated or ivory-billed woodpeckers.
Archaic. a simpleton.

Origin of woodcock

before 1050; Middle English wodecok, Old English wuducoc. See wood1, cock1

Example sentences from the Web for woodcock

British Dictionary definitions for woodcock

woodcock
/ (ˈwʊdˌkɒk) /

noun

an Old World game bird, Scolopax rusticola, resembling the snipe but larger and having shorter legs and neck: family Scolopacidae (sandpipers, etc), order Charadriiformes
a related North American bird, Philohela minor
obsolete a simpleton