cockcrow

See also: cock-crow

English

Alternative forms

• cock-crow

Etymology

From Middle English cok crowe (also as cokkes crowe), equivalent to cock +‎ crow. Likely a suppletive variation of Old English hancrǣd (“cockcrow, dawn”, literally “cock-crowing”), from hana (“cock, rooster”) + crǣd (“crowing”).

Pronunciation

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Noun

cockcrow (countable and uncountable, plural cockcrows)

1. The time of day at which the first crow of a cockerel is heard; dawn or daybreak; first light
   • 1929, Robert Dean Frisbee, The Book of Puka-Puka, Eland, published 2019, page 175:

     I put the chief of police behind the bar, instructed him in his duties, and we four convivial spirits sprawled along the counter drinking ale and telling yarns till cockcrow.

Synonyms

• break of day, sunup, sparrow-fart; see also Thesaurus:dawn

Related terms

• cockcrowing
• cockscrow

Translations

dawn

• Armenian: աքլորականչ (hy) (akʻlorakančʻ), առավոտականչ (hy) (aṙavotakančʻ)
• Bulgarian: разсъмване (razsǎmvane), първи петли (pǎrvi petli)
• Czech: kuropění (cs) n
• Finnish: kukonlaulu (fi)
• German: Hahnenschrei (de) m
• Latin: gallicinium n
• Macedonian: зо́ра f (zóra)
• Swedish: otta (sv) c, hanegäll (sv) n, dagbräckning (sv) c