Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Usage examples of "game-cock".
Beginning as a casual onlooker, a man soon finds the action of two game-cocks battling to the death a fascinating spectacle.
Tegetmeier informs me that with game-cocks, the erection of the feathers on the head has long been recognized in the cock-pit as a sign of cowardice.
The star of Ursa Major was no longer in the ascendant, and he was bartered away, with the master of the first merchant vessel we met, for a couple of game-cocks.