Cockpit Meaning
/ˈkɒkˌpɪt/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounA pit or other enclosure for cockfighting.
nounA theater or other entertainment venue.
Sentence Examples
The future pilot is trained in a mock cockpit.
The most experienced pilots have logged many thousands of hours in the cockpit.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The pilot checked all instruments in the ____ before starting the engines.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The pilot sat in the ____ and prepared for the long flight.
Word Origin & History
Compound of cock (“rooster”) + pit.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"I obſerv'd a Place where there had been a Fire made, and a Circle dug in the Earth, like a Cockpit, where it is ſuppoſed the Savage Wretches had ſat down to their inhumane Feaſtings upon the Bodies of their Fellow-Creatures."
— 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, pages 194–195:
"A cockpit, which was still used for cock-fighting during the Napoleonic Wars, used to occupy the site of the vicarage."
— 1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 224, about Heptonstall:
"Cockfighting has been banned during the virus outbreak. Before the pandemic, it was allowed only in licensed cockpits on Sundays and legal holidays, as well as during local fiestas lasting a maximum of three days[…]"
— 2020 October 28, “Police officer raiding illegal cockfight gets killed by rooster”, in BBC News:
"But pardon, and gentles all, / The flat unraised spirits that have dared / On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth / So great an object: can this cockpit hold / The vasty fields of France? or may we cram / Within this wooden O the very casques / That did affright the air at Agincourt?"
— 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, prologue]:
"The Cockpit or Phoenix Theatre in Drury Lane stood in the parish of St. Giles'-in-the-Fields, on what is now Pitt-place—properly Cockpit-place or Alley."
— 1643, The Actor's Remonstrance or Complaint, for the silencing of their Profession and banishment from their several Play-houses, page 2:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The pilot checked all instruments in the ____ before starting the engines.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The pilot sat in the ____ and prepared for the long flight.