Word.ws English Dictionary

cod

UK/kɒd/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/kɔd/

cod noun: a sea fish of the family Gadidae which are sold as "cod", as haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus), and whiting (usually Merlangius merlangus). Also the alternative letter-case form of COD.

cod: any of various types of sea fish or the meat from said fish
Image: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

cod (plural cod or cods)

  1. A sea fish of the family Gadidae which are sold as "cod", as haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus), and whiting (usually Merlangius merlangus).
    Synonyms:
    codfish
  2. A sea fish of the genus Gadus, inclusive of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua), Pacific cod (Gadus macrocephalus), and Greenland cod (Gadus ogac or Gadus macrocephalus ogac).
    Synonyms:
    codfish
  3. An Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua).
    Synonyms:
    codfish, common cod, milwell, Scotch cod
  4. (informal, usually) Other not closely related fish which are similarly important to regional fisheries, as the hapuku and cultus cod.
    Synonyms:
    codfish
  5. (informal, usually) Other not closely related fish which resemble the Atlantic cod, such as the rock cod (Lotella rhacina) and blue cod (Parapercis colias).
    Synonyms:
    codfish

Noun (2)

cod (plural cods)

  1. (obsolete) A small bag or pouch.
    • There is a Cod, or Bag, that groweth commonly in the Fields;1626, Francis Bacon, Sylua syluarum: or A naturall historie In ten centuries
    • The Bunt is to a Sail,[The Bunt of a Sail.] as the Cod to a Net, being the very Pouch, or Bag of the Sail; and therefore all Sails have this Bunt,1685, Nathaniel Boteler, Six dialogues about sea-services between an high-admiral and a captain at sea
  2. (UK, obsolete) A husk or integument; a pod.
    • And he wolde fayne have filled his bely with the coddes, that the swyne ate: and noo man gave hym.1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Luke
    • and I remember the wooing of a peascod instead of her, from whom I tooke two cods, and giuing her them againe, said with weeping teares, weare these for my sake: wee that are true Louers, runne into strange capers; but as all is mortall in nature, so is all nature in loue, mortall in folly.1603, William Shakespeare, As You Like It
  3. The cocoon of a silkworm.
    • As soon as it is arrived at the size and strength necessary for the beginning its cod, it makes its web; this is his first day's employment; on the second he forms his cod, and covers himself almost over with silk; the third day he is quite hid; and the following days employs himself in thickening...1735, John Barrow, Dictionarium polygraphicum
    • In seven days, the cods being finished, they are gathered and laid inheaps till they have time to wind off the silk: But they first set apart the cods designed for propagation, upon a hurdle in a cool airy place.1750 December, “Account of the Manner of breeding Silk-worms, and procuring Silk”, in The London Magazine, Or, Gentleman's Monthly Intelligencer
  4. (also, archaic, in plural) The scrotum.
    • that which we call castoreum […] are not the same to be termed testicles or stones; for these cods or follicles are found in both sexes, though somewhat more protuberant in the male.1646, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, III.4
    • Then let the cutter take and hold the tip of his cod in his left hand, and with a sharp knife cut the top thereof an inch long clean away.1662, Leonard Mascall, The Government of Cattel. Divided Into Three Books, page 241
  5. (Scotland, UK, dialectal, obsolete) A pillow or cushion.
    • Provost Maccalzean, with the silver keys in his hand, and the eldest bailie with the crimson-velvet cod, whereon they were to be delivered to her Majesty, following as fast as any member of a city corporation could be reasonably be expected to do.1823, John Galt, Ringan Gilhaize; or, The Covenanters, page 295
    • Item , ane long velvet cod or cusheon ;1889, Sir William Fraser, Memorials of the Earls of Haddington - Volume 2, page 299

Noun (3)

cod (plural cods)

  1. A joke or an imitation.
    • I assume it all could just be a cod.
  2. A stupid or foolish person.
    • He's making a right cod of himself.

Adjective

cod (comparative more cod, superlative most cod)

  1. (attributive, in-compounds, usually) Having the character of imitation; jocular.
    • cod psychology
    • “Illegitimi non carborundum” is a well-known example of cod Latin.
    Synonyms:
    faux, mock
  2. (Polari) Bad.
    • Sandy: Right, right, well I'll just open the wardrobe. Oh, here, look—his wardrobe. Ha!
      Julian: Ha! Oh what a naff lot!
      Sandy: It is a bit cod isn't it.1968 March 17, Kenneth Horne, Bona Rags (Round the Horne), season 4, spoken by Julian and Sandy (Hugh Paddick and Kenneth Williams)
    • Will you take a varder at the cartz on the feely-omi in the naf strides: the one with the bona blue ogles polarying the omi-palone with a vogue on and a cod sheitel.1997, James Gardiner, Who's a Pretty Boy Then?, page 137
    Antonyms:
    bona

Verb

cod (third-person singular simple present cods, present participle codding, simple past and past participle codded)

  1. (dialectal, slang, transitive) To attempt to deceive or confuse; to kid.
    • "How are you, Mary?"
      "I thought your friend Mac was codding me that you would come."1955, J P Donleavy, The Ginger Man, published 1955 (France), page 339
  2. (Ireland, intransitive, slang) To joke; to kid.
    • I'm only codding!

Proper noun capitalized: COD

COD

  1. (abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of Concise Oxford Dictionary.
  2. (abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of Call of Duty.
    • Let's go over to my house and play some COD.

Noun (4) capitalized: COD

COD (countable and uncountable, plural CODs)

  1. (abbreviation, initialism, uncountable) Initialism of cash on delivery or collect on delivery.
    • This development would probably be much facilitated were the Colony to adopt the C.O.D. (collect on delivery) system of the Cape and many other parts of the world.1901 May 10, The Agricultural Journal and Mining Record, volume 4, number 5, page 132
  2. (abbreviation, countable, initialism) Initialism of cause of death.
  3. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of cerebro-ocular dysgenesis.
  4. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of celebrity obsession disorder.
  5. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of code of discipline.
  6. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of committee on discipline.

Also used as

cod is also the alternative letter-case form of COD.

cod meaning in Urdu, Telugu, Kannada and Tagalog

cod in Urdu

کاڈ

cod in Telugu

కాడ్

cod in Kannada

ಕಾಡ್

cod in Tagalog

any marine fish of the family Gadidae
bakalaw
More languagesFewer languages
cod in Arabic
غَادُس ḡādus, قُدّ qudd, مُورَة mūra, بَقَلَة baqala
cod in Persian
کیسه kise
cod in Thai
ค็อด khot
cod in Vietnamese
cá tuyết
cod in Myanmar
ကော့ဒ်ငါး kaud.nga:

Examples of cod in a sentence

  • Dalton categorises Muse's latest composition as “cod-classical bombast”.
  • Perspective view of the gear, showing important parts: b, beam; bl. belly; br, brail; bt, bating; c cod end, or bag;1932, The Philippine Journal of Science - Volume 48, page 410:
  • its Cods are very crooked and ill ſhaped1707, J[ohn] Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for...
  • I went on one knee and thrust up and into his cod.1953, Francis Leary, The Swan and the Rose, page 22:
  • […] the director's vision has devolved from cod Orwell to riffing off bad girl art comic books and generally feeble posing.2006 July, Kim Newman, “Ultraviolet”, in Sight and Sound, volume 16, page 78:

All 40 example sentences with cod

Synonyms of cod

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of cod

Forms of cod

Noun
pluralcod
pluralcods
pluralCODs
Adjective
comparativemore cod
superlativemost cod
Verb
third-person singular presentcods
present participlecodding
past participlecodded
pastcodded
Proper noun
alternative formCoD
alternative formC.O.D.

Plural of cod: cod or cods

Origin of cod

From Middle English cod, codde, of uncertain origin: * Oldest English form cotfich as a surname in the 13th century; for more see cot (“chamber, cottage”). * A bag or pouch, related to its bloated shape; see Etymology 2 below. * From Latin gadus, from Ancient Greek γάδος (gádos, “cod”) with a possible pre-Greek or Semitic origin; for more see Atargatis, Cetus, and κῆτος (kêtos). Cognate with the genus name, translingual Gadus.

From Middle English cod, codde, from Old English cod, codd (“bag, pouch”), from Proto-West Germanic *kuddō, from Proto-Germanic *kuddô, from Proto-Indo-European *gewt- (“pouch, sack”), from *gew- (“to bend, bow, arch, vault, curve”). Cognate with Scots cod, codd, coad, kod (“pillow, cushion”), German Low German Koden, Kon (“belly, paunch”), Middle Dutch codde (“scrotum”), Danish kodde (“testicle”), Swedish kudde (“cushion”), Faroese koddi (“pillow”), Icelandic koddi (“pillow”).

Origin unknown. Attested in reference to a person (though not always a stupid or foolish person) from the end of the 17th century. The Oxford English Dictionary (1891) notes that a suggested link to codger is unlikely, as cod appears much earlier.

Words formed from cod

Phrases with cod

27 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with cod

26 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about cod

What does cod mean?
Cod means a sea fish of the family Gadidae which are sold as "cod", as haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus), and whiting (usually Merlangius merlangus).
What is cod in Urdu?
Cod in Urdu is کاڈ. See Cod meaning in Urdu.
How do you use cod in a sentence?
Dalton categorises Muse's latest composition as “cod-classical bombast”.
What part of speech is cod?
Cod can be a noun, an adjective, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce cod?
Cod is pronounced /kɒd/ (UK).
What is the plural of cod?
The plural of cod is cod.

Words near cod in the dictionary

  1. cocyclomatic
  2. Cocytean
  3. Cocytian
  4. Cocytos
  5. Cocytus
  6. cod
  7. cod end
  8. cod ends
  9. cod Latin
  10. cod line
  11. cod lines

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cod (page history and authors); COD (page history and authors); cod (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cod (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cod (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-cod.ogg.

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