weathercock
English edit
Etymology edit
From Middle English wetharcoke, weþercok, wedercoc, wederkok, equivalent to weather + cock.
Pronunciation edit
Audio (Southern England) (file)
Noun edit
weathercock (plural weathercocks)
- A weather vane, sometimes in the form of a cockerel.
- (figuratively) One who veers with every change of current opinion; a fickle, inconstant person.
- (chiefly Canada, US) A kind of wind pump whose top behaves like a weather vane, moving with the wind direction, but which also has a wheel attached to measure wind speed.
Translations edit
weather vane
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a fickle, inconstant person
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See also edit
Verb edit
weathercock (third-person singular simple present weathercocks, present participle weathercocking, simple past and past participle weathercocked)
- (intransitive, of a boat) To turn upwind because of the difference in water pressure on two sides.
- (intransitive, of an airplane or missile) To veer into the direction of the oncoming (relative) wind.
- (transitive) To act as a weathercock for.