Word.ws English Dictionary

cockaroach

cockaroach is the alternative form of cockroach.

Meaning of cockroach

Noun

cockroach (plural cockroaches)

  1. Any black or brown straight-winged insect of the order Blattodea that is not a termite.
    • Then there were cockroach hunts; we chased them out of their haunts, where at night they busily devoured currants, jam, and sugar; in fact their diet was far more varied than ours, for they made plentiful meals off our boots, the coverings of our books, and any stray pieces of flannel that came in...1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 121
    Synonyms:
    roach
  2. (derogatory, slang) Term of abuse.
    • I want a divorce, you cockroach!
    Synonyms:
    roach, scum
  3. (derogatory, offensive, slang) A person or a member of a group of people regarded as undesirable and rapidly procreating.
    • During the Rwandan genocide, Hutu genocidaires labelled Tutsis as cockroaches and called for their extermination.
  4. (Australia, derogatory, especially, humorous, slang) A person from New South Wales.
  5. (Australia, obsolete, slang) A hard lump of brown sugar.

Forms of cockaroach

pluralcockaroaches

Questions about cockaroach

What is cockaroach the alternative form of?
Cockaroach is the alternative form of cockroach.

Words near cockaroach in the dictionary

  1. cockandy
  2. cockapert
  3. cockaperts
  4. cockapoo
  5. cockapoos
  6. cockaroach
  7. cockarouse
  8. cockarouses
  9. cockateel
  10. cockateels
  11. cockatiel

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cockaroach (page history and authors); cockroach (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “cockaroach.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cockaroach. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.