cog
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cog¹
- /kɒɡ/ UK
- /kɔɡ/ US
- /kɑɡ/ cot caught merger
Rhymes with -ɒɡ, -ɔːɡ
Where it comes from
Inherited from Middle English cogge, from Old Norse *kogge, *koggr (see Old Swedish kogge, kogger), from Proto-Germanic *kuggō (“cog, swelling”), from Proto-Indo-European *gugā (“hump, ball”), from *gēw- (“to bend, arch”). Compare Lithuanian gugà (“pommel, hump, hill”).
Cognates includes: Swedish kugg, kugge (“cog tooth”), Norwegian kugg (“cog”). The meaning of “cog” in carpentry derives from association with a tooth on a cogwheel. Compare Old Swedish koggavidher (“cog wood”), “wood reserved for a millwheel”.
See also dialectal English cag (“stump”), keg; Old Norse kaggi (“keg”) + -gi (diminutive suffix), from the Germanic base *kagô (“bush, branch, stalk, stump”); also found in Bavarian Kag (“the stalk or stem of a cabbage”); dialectal Swedish kage (“treestump; piece of wood; post”), kagg or kagge (“scythe handle”); Norwegian Nynorsk kage or kagge (“low lying bush, small tree”), dialectal kagg (“scythe handle”); Old English ċeacga (“broom, furze, gorse”), whence English chag (“branch”), also Old English cyċġel, English cudgel (“knotty club”). The ultimate origin could be related to English cog (“cargo boat”) (Dutch kogge), probably named for its “round swollen” appearance.
noun cogs
- A tooth on a gear.
- A gear; especially, a cogwheel. She said: " We're not wasting time. While the cogs of Parliament continue to whir, we will continue to work on the rolling stock and infrastructure strategy, the national transport integrated strategy, and our accessibility roadmap.
- An unimportant individual in a greater system. just a cog in the machine
- A projection or tenon at the end of a beam designed to fit into a matching opening of another piece of wood to form a joint.
- One of the rough pillars of stone or coal left to support the roof of a mine.
verb cogs · cogging · cogged
- To furnish with a cog or cogs.
- Of an electric motor or generator, to snap preferentially to certain positions when not energized.
cog²
- /kɒɡ/ UK
- /kɔɡ/ US
- /kɑɡ/ cot caught merger
Rhymes with -ɒɡ, -ɔːɡ
Where it comes from
From Middle English cogge, from Middle Dutch kogge, cogghe (modern kogge), from Proto-Germanic *kuggō, from Proto-Indo-European *gugā (“hump, ball”) (compare Lithuanian gugà (“pommel, hump, hill”)), from *gēw- (“to bend, arch”). See etymology 1 above.
noun cogs
- A partially clinker-built, flat-bottomed, square-rigged mediaeval ship of burden or war, with a round, bulky hull and a single mast, typically 15 to 25 meters in length, in use from ca. 1150 to 1500. The name of the ship was Dawn Treader. She was only a little bit of a thing compared with one of our ships, or even with the cogs, dromonds, carracks and galleons which Narnia had owned when Lucy and Edmund had reigned there under Peter as the High King, for nearly all navigation had died out in the
- The hypothetical precursor ship type of the above said to be in use during the early Middle Ages, variously alleged to be Frisian or Scandinavian.
- A small fishing boat.
cog³
- /kɒɡ/ UK
- /kɔɡ/ US
- /kɑɡ/ cot caught merger
Rhymes with -ɒɡ, -ɔːɡ
Where it comes from
Uncertain. Both verb and noun appear first in 1532.
noun cogs
- A trick or deception; a falsehood. False suggestions, shamelesse cogs, and impious forgeries.
verb cogs · cogging · cogged
- To load (a die) so that it can be used to cheat.
- To cheat; to play or gamble fraudulently. 1726, Jonathan Swift (debated), Molly Mog For guineas in other men's breeches, / Your gamesters will palm and will cog.
- To seduce, or draw away, by adulation, artifice, or falsehood; to wheedle; to cozen; to cheat. I'll mountebank their loves, Cog their hearts from them.
- To plagiarize. […] his themes and exercises were in constant demand for what we called cogging and American students rather grandly called plagiarization. Shakespeare and Eliot plagiarized; we grimly cogged in the early morning-oh, […]
- To obtrude or thrust in, by falsehood or deception; to palm off. to cog in a word
cog⁴
- /kɒɡ/ UK
- /kɔɡ/ US
- /kɑɡ/ cot caught merger
Rhymes with -ɒɡ, -ɔːɡ
noun cogs
- Alternative form of cogue (“wooden vessel for milk”).
cog⁵
- /kɒɡ/ UK
- /kɔɡ/ US
- /kɑɡ/ cot caught merger
Rhymes with -ɒɡ, -ɔːɡ
noun cogs
- Initialism of center of gravity
COG⁶
noun COGs
- Initialism of center of gravity
- Initialism of cluster of galaxies
- Abbreviation of course over ground
proper noun
- Initialism of Church of God: numerous, mostly unrelated Christian denominations.
CoG⁷
noun CoGs
- Initialism of center of gravity
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: sprocket, gear, cycle, trap, piece, spiral, tooth, gbl, seda, goc, hunting cog, cant, cograil, cogset, orling, cuspid
Translations
Every language
noun tooth on a gear
| Español | leva, álabe, levador |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 이 i, 톱니 tomni |
| 日本語 | 歯 ha |
| 中文 | 齒 /齿 chǐ |
| Português | dente |
| Français | dent |
| Deutsch | Zahn |
| Русский | зубе́ц zubéc |
noun unimportant individual
| Français | pion, rouage |
|---|---|
| Deutsch | Rädchen |
| Italiano | rotellina |
| Русский | ви́нтик víntik, ме́лкая со́шка mélkaja sóška |
noun carpentry: a projection or tenon
| Deutsch | Zapfen |
|---|
Talk about this word "cog." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/cog. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. cog. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/cog "cog." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/cog.Cite this
@misc{cog_2026,
title = {cog},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/cog},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
