Dictionary

haycock en · NOUN

From Middle English haycok, hacoke, haycoke; equivalent to hay + cock (“conical heap”).

A small conical pile of hay, or a heap of hay thrown up in a hayfield while the hay is being cured or awaiting relocation to a haystack or barn.
- And then in haste her bow'r she leaves, With Thestylis to bind the sheaves; Or if the earlier season lead To the tann'd haycock in the mead. 1645, John Milton, L'Allegro:
- Brother Kempe, as many alhailes to thy perſon as there be haicocks in Iuly at Pancredge: […] [1589?], Cutbert Curry-knaue [pseudonym; Thomas Nashe], “To that Most Comicall and Conceited Caualeire Monsieur du Kempe, Iestmonger and Vice-gerent generall to the Ghost of Dicke Tarlton. His Louing Brother Cutbert Curry-knaue Sendeth Greeting.”, in An Almond for a Parrat, or Cutbert Curry-knaues Almes. […], [London]: […] [Eliot’s Court Press], →OCLC, signature A2, recto:
- [T]hey perceived lying closely concealed beneath the thick foliage of a Haycock, a beautifull little Girl not more than 3 months old. [c. 1788–1789], [Jane Austen], “Henry and Eliza: a novel”, in Volume the First, page 87:
- And willows, willow-herb, and grass, / And meadowsweet, and haycocks dry, / No whit less still and lonely fair / Than the high cloudlets in the sky. 1917, Edward Thomas, “Adlestrop”, in Poems, London: Selwyn & Blount, page 40:

Spelling	Features	Labels	Source
hay-cock		alternative	lexicographic
haycocks	Number=Plur		lexicographic