peacock

/ˌpiˈkɑk/

/ˈpikɑk/

Other forms: peacocks; peacocking; peacocked

A peacock is a shiny blue bird who fans out his large colorful iridescent tail feathers, especially when he’s flirting with the peahens. A peacock is a male peafowl.

A male peacock is more flamboyant than his female counterpart — he’s the one with those long brilliant tail feathers marked with eye-like designs. If a man (a human!) dresses overly flashy, he’s “peacocking.” The writer Flannery O’ Connor was famous for having peacocks strut around her farm in Georgia. Peacocks also have a loud call that sounds almost like a human cry. The word peacock has many etymological influences, and it may ultimately come from the Tamil tokei.

Definitions of peacock

1. noun

   male peafowl; having a crested head and very large fan-like tail marked with iridescent eyes or spots
   type of:

   bird of Juno, peafowl

   very large terrestrial southeast Asian pheasant often raised as an ornamental bird
2. verb

   show off or act overly proud of one's appearance
3. noun

   European butterfly having reddish-brown wings each marked with a purple eyespot
   synonyms: Inachis io, peacock butterfly

   type of:

   brush-footed butterfly, four-footed butterfly, nymphalid, nymphalid butterfly

   medium to large butterflies found worldwide typically having brightly colored wings and much-reduced nonfunctional forelegs carried folded on the breast