peacock
\ PEE-kok \, verb;
1.to make a vainglorious display; strut like a peacock.
noun:
1.the male of the peafowl distinguished by its long, erectile, greenish, iridescent tail coverts that are brilliantly marked with ocellated spots and that can be spread in a fan.
2.any peafowl.
3.a vain, self-conscious person.
4.(initial capital letter) Astronomy . the constellation Pavo.
Quotes:
…he must have passed for a rich man when he peacocked about the town in his shaggy purple gown with gold buttons and hoop lace.
-- Katharine Burrill, "Letters of a Peer and a Pork-Packer," Chambers's Journal , Volume VI, 1903
He peacocks in all his Seventies finery--glitter in his hair, a rhinestone-studded silver suit and as much jewelry as human fingers can hold.
-- Rob Sheffield, "The Rhinestone Closet," Rolling Stone , May 26, 2013
Origin:
Peacock is formed from the now-obsolete word pea meaning "peafowl," and cock meaning "a male of the gallinaceous kind" or "rooster." It entered English at the turn of the 13th century as a noun, and began to be used as a verb in the late 1500s.
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