Crossword clues for cockatrice
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Cockatrice \Cock"a*trice\ (-tr[imac]s; 277), n. [OF. cocatrice crocodile, F. cocatrix, cocatrice. The word is a corruption from the same source as E. crocodile, but was confused with cock the bird, F. coq, whence arose the fable that the animal was produced from a cock's egg. See Crocodile.]
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A fabulous serpent whose breath and look were said to be fatal. See Basilisk.
That bare vowel, I, shall poison more Than the death-darting eye of cockatrice.
--Shak. (Her.) A representation of this serpent. It has the head, wings, and legs of a bird, and tail of a serpent.
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(Script.) A venomous serpent which which cannot now be identified.
The weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice's
Note: [Rev. Ver. basilisk's] den.
--Is. xi. 8. -
Any venomous or deadly thing.
This little cockatrice of a king.
--Bacon.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
late 14c., from Old French cocatriz, altered (by influence of coq) from Late Latin *calcatrix, from Latin calcare "to tread" (from calx (1) "heel"), as translation of Greek ikhneumon, literally "tracker, tracer."\n
\nIn classical writings, an Egyptian animal of some sort, the mortal enemy of the crocodile, which it tracks down and kills. This vague sense became hopelessly confused in the Christian West, and in England the word ended up applied to the equivalent of the basilisk. A serpent hatched from a cock's egg, it was fabled to kill by its glance and could be slain only by tricking it into seeing its own reflection. Belief in them persisted even among the educated because the word was used in the KJV several times to translate a Hebrew word for "serpent." In heraldry, a beast half cock, half serpent.
Wiktionary
n. 1 A legendary creature about the size and shape of a dragon or wyvern, but in appearance resembling a giant rooster, with some lizard-like characteristics. 2 (cx obsolete English) Mistress, harlot
WordNet
n. monster hatched by a reptile from a cock's egg; able to kill with a glance
Wikipedia
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game, the cockatrice is a small avian magical beast. Any creature that a cockatrice bites can be permanently turned to stone.
A cockatrice is intelligent, and is always neutral in alignment.
A cockatrice is a legendary creature resembling a large rooster with a lizard-like tail.
Cockatrice may also refer to:
- Cockatrice (Dungeons & Dragons), a small avian magical beast in the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons
- HMS Cockatrice, eight ships of the Royal Navy
- Cockatrice, a British armoured vehicle mounting a Lagonda flamethrower
- Cockatrice, open-source freeware used to play card games such as Magic: The Gathering over a network
Usage examples of "cockatrice".
Of these, Ravenna had been the last to withdraw, lingering while she fashioned the Ions, one great beast for every land: the starhorse Avarclon for the white plain of Avaric, the cockatrice of Elver, the gryphon of Terrain.
Stout of heart are they, and instructed in all lore, and Juss a sorcerer of ancient power, who hath charms to blunt the glance of basilisk or cockatrice.
One other genuine quality he has which crowns all these, and that is this: to a friend in want, he will not depart with the weight of a soldered groat, lest the world might censure him prodigal, or report him a gull: marry, to his cockatrice or punquetto, half a dozen taffata gowns or satin kirtles in a pair or two of months, why, they are nothing.
Oft has your prophet, for reward of toil, Seen nests of seeming cockatrices coil: Disowned them as the unholiest of Time, Which were his offspring, born of flame on slime.
Tears, of cockatrices shed: When the heart is vowed for freedom, Captaincy it yields to head.
The female riddle is hard to read, because it is compounded of sensations, and they rouse and appeal to the similar cockatrices in us, which either hiss back or coil upon themselves.
What iguanas and anacondas, what snoozing geckos languished there, presided over, perhaps, by a heraldic basilisk, a rampant cockatrice!
Oft has your prophet, for reward of toil,Seen nests of seeming cockatrices coil:Disowned them as the unholiest of Time,Which were his offspring, born of flame on slime.
XX Read that riddle, scorning pity's Tears, of cockatrices shed: When the heart is vowed for freedom, Captaincy it yields to head.
Carelessly scrawled runes on the flask spelled out essence of cockatrice, or so Sandy's gift of tongues interpreted it.
If Essence Extractions had found a way to produce lots of cockatrices, they were sitting on the goose that laid the golden egg.
If Essence Extractions had found a way to pro duce lots of cockatrices, they were sitting on the goose that laid the golden egg.
Like all her signets, this was a simple seal carved of sardonyx, her Clan crest, a rampant cockatrice.