Meanings
nounweathercock (plural weathercocks)
plural weathercocks
- A weather vane, sometimes in the form of a cockerel.
- figurativelyOne who veers with every change of current opinion; a fickle, inconstant person.
- CanadaUSA kind of wind pump whose top behaves like a weather vane, moving with the wind direction, but which also has a wheel attached to measure wind speed.
verbweathercock (third-person singular simple present weathercocks, present participle weathercocking, simple past and past participle weathercocked)
present singular third person weathercocks · participle present weathercocking · participle past weathercocked · past weathercocked
- intransitiveTo veer into the direction of the oncoming (relative) wind.
- transitiveTo act as a weathercock for.
Synonyms & antonyms
Also see
Origin
- Middle Englishwetharcoke
- Englishweathercock
From Middle English wetharcoke, weþercok, wedercoc, wederkok, equivalent to weather + cock.
More words from Middle English
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Danish vendekåbe, vejrhane
- vendekåbea fickle, inconstant person
- vejrhanea fickle, inconstant person
Estonian tuulelipp, tuisupea
- tuulelippa fickle, inconstant person
- tuisupeaa fickle, inconstant person
Finnish tuuliviiri
- tuuliviiria fickle, inconstant person
Hungarian szélkakas
- szélkakasa fickle, inconstant person
Italian banderuola
- banderuolaa fickle, inconstant person
Portuguese biruta de aeroporto
- biruta de aeroportoa fickle, inconstant person
Spanish veleta
- veletaa fickle, inconstant person
Cite this entry
APA
weathercock. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/weathercock
MLA
“weathercock.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/weathercock. Accessed November 4, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “weathercock,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/weathercock.
Source: weathercock on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.