Wood"cock` (?), n. [AS. wuducoc.]
1. Zool.
Any one of several species of long-billed limicoline birds belonging to the genera Scolopax and Philohela. They are mostly nocturnal in their habits, and are highly esteemed as game birds.
⇒ The most important species are the European (Scolopax rusticola) and the American woodcock (Philohela minor), which agree very closely in appearance and habits.
2.
Fig.: A simpleton.
[Obs.]
If I loved you not, I would laugh at you, and see you
Run your neck into the noose, and cry, "A woodcock!"
Beau. & Fl.
Little woodcock. (a) The common American snipe. (b) The European snipe. -- Sea woodcock fish, the bellows fish. -- Woodcock owl, the short-eared owl (Asio brachyotus). -- Woodcock shell, the shell of certain mollusks of the genus Murex, having a very long canal, with or without spines. -- Woodcock snipe. See under Snipe.
© Webster 1913.