meacock

See also: Meacock

English

Etymology

Probably a blend of meek +‎ peacock, or from meek +‎ -cock (“diminutive suffix”). For use of cock as a diminutive suffix, see also niddicock.

Noun

meacock (plural meacocks)

1. (obsolete) An uxorious, effeminate, or spiritless man; a meek man who dotes on his wife, or is henpecked.
   • c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

     Petruchio: How tame, when men and women are alone / A meacock wretch can make the curstest shrew.

   • 1604, Thomas Decker, Thomas Middleton, The Honest Whore:

     Viola: a woman’s well holp’d up with such a meacock. I had rather have a husband that would swaddle me thrice a day, than such a one that will be gull’d twice in half an hour.

   • 1876, Henry Taylor, Philip Van Artevelde., A Dramatic Romance., In Two Parts., Henry S. King & Co. (London), page 86

     Earl: A man that as much knowledge has of war / As I of brewing mead ! ... A bookish nursling of the monks—a meacock !

References

• “meacock”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.