1894 Brewer’s / C / Chanticleer
The cock, in the tale of Reynard the Fox, and in Chaucer’s Nonne Prestes Tale. The word means “shrill-singer.” (French chanter-clair, to sing clairment, i.e. distinctly.)
“My lungs began to crow like chanticleer.”
Shakespeare: As You Like It, ii. 7.
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.