COXCOMB • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Coxcomb

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noun

Coxcomb n.

(a)

A strip of red cloth notched like the comb of a cock, which licensed jesters formerly wore in their caps.

(b)

The cap itself.

The top of the head, or the head itself. "We will belabor you a little better, And beat a little more care into your coxcombs."

A vain, showy fellow; a conceited, silly man, fond of display; a superficial pretender to knowledge or accomplishments; a fop. "Fond to be seen, she kept a bevy Of powdered coxcombs at her levee." "Some are bewildered in the maze of schools, And some made coxcombs, nature meant but fools."

(Bot.) A name given to several plants of different genera, but particularly to Celosia cristata, or garden cockscomb. Same as Cockscomb.

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Etymology of 'Coxcomb'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Coxcomb" Quotes from Famous Books

... coxcomb, denotes a low state of mind. The dreamer should endeavor to elevate his mind ...

— 10,000 Dreams Interpreted • Gustavus Hindman Miller

... Mr Stuart Reid's book on Lord Durham, the same Athenaeum (November 3, 1906) observed: 'Mr Reid conclusively disposes of Brougham's malignant slander that the matter of Lord Durham's report on Canada came from a felon (Wakefield) and the style from a coxcomb (Buller). The latter, in his account of the mission, frequently alludes to the report, but not a single phrase hints ...

— The Day of Sir John Macdonald - A Chronicle of the First Prime Minister of the Dominion • Joseph Pope

... curious legend which credits Buller with the authorship is traceable to Brougham's spite. Macaulay and Brougham met in a London street. The great Whig historian praised the Report. Brougham belittled it. 'The matter,' he averred, 'came from a felon, the style from a coxcomb, and the Dictator furnished only six letters, D-u-r-h-a-m.' The whole question has been carefully discussed by Stuart J. Reid in his Life and Letters of the First Earl of Durham, and the myth has been given its quietus. Even if direct external evidence were lacking, a ...

— The Winning of Popular Government - A Chronicle of the Union of 1841 • Archibald Macmechan

... archdeacon; 'you never thought yourself old till you listened to the impudent trash of that coxcomb ...

— Barchester Towers • Anthony Trollope

... of little import what censure is passed upon a coxcomb who owes his present existence to the above burlesque character given to him by the poet, whose amber has preserved many other grubs and worms: but to classify Boccaccio with such a person, and to excommunicate his very ashes, must of itself ...

— The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 2 • George Gordon Byron

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