: a male peafowl distinguished by a crest of upright feathers and by greatly elongated loosely webbed upper tail coverts which are mostly tipped with iridescent spots and are erected and spread in a shimmering fan usually as a courtship display
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Noun
Miniature horses, pigs and other unusual pets found their way onto planes, but an emotional support peacock did not.—Neil Vigdor, New York Times, 10 Apr. 2025 Nestled along the sandy shores of Siloso Beach, the resort is adorned in tropical greenery, while peacocks wander freely across the gardens, hornbills perch in the frangipani trees and dinosaur-like monitor lizards sunbathe by breakfast tables.—Nicole Trilivas, Forbes.com, 8 Apr. 2025
Verb
The need among small-time meme coin creators to peacock for attention became even more acute when celebrities piled in.—Joel Khalili, WIRED, 12 Sep. 2024 Captain Alan Zaremba of Hollywood specializes in guiding anglers to peacock bass in South Florida as well as in the Amazon River basin in Colombia and Brazil.—Steve Waters, Miami Herald, 7 June 2024 See All Example Sentences for peacock
Word History
Etymology
Noun
Middle English pecok, from pe- (from Old English pēa peafowl, from Latin pavon-, pavo peacock) + cok cock
: the male of a very large Asian pheasant having a very long brightly colored tail that can be spread or raised, a small crest of upright feathers on the top of the head, and in most forms brilliant blue or green feathers on the neck and shoulders
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