PEACOCK • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Peacock

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/pˈikˌɑk/ Listen

noun

Peacock n.

(Zool.) The male of any pheasant of the genus Pavo, of which at least two species are known, native of Southern Asia and the East Indies. Note: The upper tail coverts, which are long and capable of erection, are each marked with a black spot bordered by concentric bands of brilliant blue, green, and golden colors. The common domesticated species is Pavo cristatus. The Javan peacock (Pavo muticus) is more brilliantly colored than the common species.

In common usage, the species in general or collectively; a peafowl.

Peacock butterfly (Zool.), a handsome European butterfly (Hamadryas Io) having ocelli like those of peacock.

Peacock fish (Zool.), the European blue-striped wrasse (Labrus variegatus); so called on account of its brilliant colors. Called also cook wrasse and cook.

Peacock pheasant (Zool.), any one of several species of handsome Asiatic pheasants of the genus Polyplectron. They resemble the peacock in color.

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Etymology of 'Peacock'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Peacock" Quotes from Famous Books

... "Play not the peacock, looking everywhere about you to see if you be well-decked; if your shoes fit well; if your pantaloons ...

— From Farm House to the White House • William M. Thayer

... me and see," responded Liza, with a laugh. "That's nothing to what Nabob Johnny said to me once, and I gave him a slap over the lug for it, the strutting and smirking old peacock. Why, he's all lace—lace at his neck and at ...

— The Shadow of a Crime - A Cumbrian Romance • Hall Caine

... give the world a fair challenge, and tell it, 'There—you know the worst of me: come on and try a fall, for either you or I must down.' Slander? Ask Leigh here, who has but known me a fortnight, whether I am not as vain as a peacock, as selfish as a fox, as imperious as a bona roba, and ready to make a cat's paw of him or any man, if there be a chestnut in the fire: and yet the poor fool cannot help loving me, and running of my errands, and taking all my schemes and my dreams for gospel; ...

— Westward Ho! • Charles Kingsley

... daytime, from wine, from molesting men of worth, from dice, from putting human beings to death by artful means, from useless travelling, and from holding any one guilty without the commission of a crime. His levees were in a hall decently splendid, and he was distinguished only by an umbrella of peacock's feathers; he received all complainants, petitioners, and presenters of offenses with kind looks and soft words. He united to himself the seven or eight wise councillors, and the sober and virtuous secretary that formed the high cabinet of his royal brother, and ...

— Vikram and the Vampire • Sir Richard F. Burton

... have been very beautiful, with the voice of a peacock; she might also have the plumage—but no, that is impossible—she must, from her sex, have been a peahen. At all events, if not very beautiful, she was very sick. I left the beautiful Maria screeching over the gunnel. If the young gentleman ...

— Olla Podrida • Frederick Marryat (AKA Captain Marryat)

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