cockatrice

/ˈkɒkətɹaɪs/

cockatrice noun: synonym of basilisk, a serpentine dragon so poisonous that even its gaze is deadly.

Image: Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

cockatrice (plural cockatrices)

(obsolete) Synonym of basilisk, a serpentine dragon so poisonous that even its gaze is deadly.
- Vp on the eddere and the kokatrice thou shalt goa. 1382, Wycliffe's Bible (MS Douce 369), Psalms 90:13
Synonyms:

basilisk
A monster with a lethal gaze or breath, originally believed to originate from a cock egg brooded over by a snake or toad, later specifically combining serpentine and landfowl features and particularly (heraldry) a rooster-headed wyvern.
- A forlyued cok leiþ eiren in his laste elde... and ȝif any venemous worme sittiþ on broode þerevppon in þe canyculer dayes, þerof is igendrid... a cocatrice.a. 1398, John Trevisa, transl. Bartholomeus Anglicus as De Proprietatibus Rerum (MS BL Add. 27944), Vol. I, p. 628
- “Peace reigns in happy Luxor. The lion lies down with the lamb, and the child, if it will, may harmlessly put its hand into the cockatrice’s den.”c. 1910, Joseph Walker McSpadden, The Spell of Egypt
Synonyms:

basilicock
(obsolete) Synonym of crocodile.

Synonyms:

crocodile
(archaic, derogatory) An evil, deceitful, or destructive person.
- ... this little cockatrice of a king ...1622, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [i.e. Francis Bacon], The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, […], London: […] W[illiam] Stansby for Matthew Lownes, and William Barret...
- I have intruded because this situation is intolerable. You are either a poisonous cockatrice or a witling, and you have brought Mr. Goodwin to a desperate pass.2002 May 5, Lee Goldberg et al., “Murder Is Corny”, in Nero Wolfe
Synonyms:

antimodel, bad guy, baddie, bastard, beggar, blackguard, bounder, cad, coistril, evildoer
(archaic, derogatory) Synonym of whore, a female prostitute, a sexually promiscuous woman.

Synonyms:

whore

cockatrice meaning in Tamil, Marathi and Tagalog

cockatrice in Marathi

legendary creature: कॉकट्रिस kŏkaṭris

Synonyms of cockatrice

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All synonyms of cockatrice

Forms of cockatrice

plural	cockatrices

Origin of cockatrice

From Middle English cocatrice, from Old French cocatriz (“basilisk, cockatrice”), from Late Latin calcātrīx (“female trampler, treader”), from Latin calcāre (“to trample, to walk upon, to oppress”) + -trīx (“-ess: forming feminine agentives”), from calx (“heel”). Its eventual association with poultry influenced by cock (“rooster, male chicken”), q.v.

Words formed from cockatrice

Questions about cockatrice

What does cockatrice mean?: Cockatrice means synonym of basilisk, a serpentine dragon so poisonous that even its gaze is deadly.
What is cockatrice in Tamil?: Cockatrice in Tamil is நச்சுக்கண் பாம்பு, திட்டிவிடம். See Cockatrice meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is cockatrice?: Cockatrice is a noun.
How do you pronounce cockatrice?: Cockatrice is pronounced /ˈkɒkətɹaɪs/.
What is the plural of cockatrice?: The plural of cockatrice is cockatrices.

Words near cockatrice in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: cockatrice (page history and authors); cockatrice (Tamil Wiktionary) (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-cockatrice.wav.

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

Noun

cockatrice meaning in Tamil, Marathi and Tagalog

cockatrice in Tamil