cockatrices

Noun

cockatrice (plural cockatrices)

1. (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

2. 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

   Synonyms:

   basilicock

3. (obsolete) Synonym of crocodile.

   Synonyms:

   crocodile

4. (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...

   Synonyms:

   antimodel, bad guy, baddie, bastard, beggar, blackguard, bounder, cad, coistril, evildoer

5. (archaic, derogatory) Synonym of whore, a female prostitute, a sexually promiscuous woman.

   Synonyms:

   whore