a. The crowing of a cock. b. The time when cocks crow, early dawn.
1382. Wyclif, Mark xiii. 35. Whanne the lord of the hous cometh, in the euentide, or in the mydnyȝt, or kockis crowynge, or morwynge.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 86. Cokkrowynge tyme, gallicinium.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., III. (1586), 130 b. In Winter you must feede them at the first Cockcrowing and againe when the daye begins to breake.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., I. xiii. 40. An age which we may call the first cock-crowing after the midnight of Ignorance and Superstition.
1844. Emerson, Yng. American, Wks. (Bohn), II. 301. All this drudgery, from cockcrowing to starlight.
1878. N. Amer. Rev., CXXVII. 54. Like the cock-crowing that sounded in the ears of Peter.
