cockscomb

 

• cock's comb
• cock's-comb (archaic)
• coxcomb

From Middle English cokkes comb; equivalent to cock +‎ -s- +‎ comb.

cockscomb (plural cockscombs)

1. The fleshy red crest of a rooster
2. A red cap once worn by court jesters
3. A yellow rattle, Rhinanthus minor (flowering plant native to Eurasia)
4. An annual garden plant (Celosia argentea var. cristata, syn. Celosia cristata), having showy red clusters of flowers
   • 1929, M. Barnard Eldershaw, A House is Built, Chapter VII, Section xi:

     She saw a square picture framed in the window, two whitewashed cottages each with a little winding path, a bed of red and yellow cockscomb, a sloping field, a row of gum-trees, a child in a blue sunbonnet carrying a basket.

5. (archaic) A conceited dandy
6. (nautical) A serrated cleat once fitted to the yards of a square-rigged ship and used when the sail was being reefed

• cockscombed
• common cockscomb (Celosia argentea var. cristata, syn. Celosia cristata)
• garden cockscomb (Celosia argentea var. cristata, syn. Celosia cristata)
• plumed cockscomb (Celosia argentea)
• silver cockscomb (Celosia argentea)
• yellow cockscomb (Rhinanthus crista-galli)