Definition of "woodcock"

woodcock

/ˈwʊd.kɒk/

noun
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.
  Quotations
  "[A]h, that was the woodcock and the goatsucker - yes, yes! it sounds strange to him, that hasn't heard him[.]"
  1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 286
2. A simpleton.
  Quotations
  If I loved you not, I would laugh at you, and see you / Run your neck into the noose, and cry, "A woodcock!"
  c. 1607–1611, Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, “Cupid’s Revenge”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1679, Act IV, scene i
  "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 […]
  1838, Nathan Drake, Belletristical Works, volume 1, page 215