woodcock

From Middle English wodecocke, wode-koc, wodekok, from Old English wudecocc, wuducoc, equivalent to wood +‎ cock.

• IPA^(key): /ˈwʊd.kɒk/

woodcock (plural woodcock or woodcocks)

1. Any of several wading birds in the genus Scolopax, of the family Scolopacidae, characterised by a long slender bill and cryptic brown and blackish plumage.
2. A simpleton.
   • Beaumont and Fletcher

     If I loved you not, I would laugh at you, and see you / Run your neck into the noose, and cry, "A woodcock!"

   • 1838, Nathan Drake, Belletristical Works (volume 1, page 215)

     "Now will that silly woodcock make such a report of what I have said to his chosen friend," observed Sir Robert to his companion when my Lord Cobham was out of hearing […]