Word.ws English Dictionary

turncock

turncock noun: a tap or faucet that regulates the flow of a fluid.

Noun

turncock (plural turncocks)

  1. A tap or faucet that regulates the flow of a fluid.
  2. A person employed to turn on the water for the mains, to regulate the fireplugs, etc. for a water company.
    • 1,000 crossing-sweepers; another thousand chimney-sweeps, and the same number of turncocks and lamp-lighters;1851, Henry Mayhew, “Costermongers”, in London Labour and the London Poor

Forms of turncock

pluralturncocks

Origin of turncock

From turn + cock.

Questions about turncock

What does turncock mean?
Turncock means a tap or faucet that regulates the flow of a fluid.
What part of speech is turncock?
Turncock is a noun.
What is the plural of turncock?
The plural of turncock is turncocks.

Words near turncock in the dictionary

  1. turncoat witnesses
  2. turncoated
  3. turncoating
  4. turncoatism
  5. turncoats
  6. turncock
  7. turncocks
  8. turncurtovirus
  9. turncurtoviruses
  10. turndown
  11. turndowns

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: turncock (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.

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