Definition of "turncock"

turncock

noun
plural turncocks
1. A tap or faucet that regulates the flow of a fluid.
2. A person employed to turn on the water for the mains, to regulate the fireplugs, etc. for a water company.
  Quotations
  1,000 crossing-sweepers; another thousand chimney-sweeps, and the same number of turncocks and lamp-lighters;
  1851, Henry Mayhew, “Costermongers”, in London Labour and the London Poor