cockshut

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle English cockshoot or a compound of cock (noun) +‎ shut (verb).[1]

Noun

cockshut (countable and uncountable, plural cockshuts)

  1. (countable, obsolete) A kind of net for catching woodcock.
  2. (uncountable, puristic, otherwise obsolete) Twilight, when poultry would be shut in for the night.
    • 1593, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Richard the Third', act 5, scene 3:
      Sir Richard Ratcliff: Thomas the Earl of Surrey, and himself,
      Much about cock-shut time, from troop to troop
      Went through the army, cheering up the soldiers.
    • 1603, Ben Jonson, The Satyr; republished in The Works of Ben Jonson, volume 6, London: For G. and W. Nicol, et al, 1816, page 473:
      1 Fai.: Mistress, this is only spite:
      For you would not yesternight
      Kiss him in the cock-shut light.
    • 2012 November, Leon Robert McNarry, “The Erendrake”, in Poems, Tales & Whimsy, Victoria, B.C.: FriesenPress, →ISBN, page 28:
      In the quiet cockshut after a heavy darg, a boonfellow likes to croodle with her fanger (or he with his bellibone) as they watch the sunset through the eyethurl.

Synonyms

Derived terms

References

  1. ^ “cockshut, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
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