Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also cock-trick) a prostitute [such a monster can kill with a mere glance + pun on cock n.³ (1) + fem. sfx -trix; Halliwell, editor/reviser of Nares, Glossary (1822), suggests that it ‘seems to be applied especially to a captain’s concubine’].

1508		Dunbar ‘Flyting of Dunbar & Kennedy’ in Laing Poems (1834) II 76: That Adame eit, quhen he tynt Paradyce, Scho eit invennomit lyk a cokkatryce.
1540		D. Lyndsay Satyre of Thrie Estaits III iii: That cokatrice, that commoun heure, The mekle devill ma nocht indeure Hir stubornes and stink.
c.1580		A. Montgomerie Invectiues Capitane Allexander Montgomeree and Pollvart in Parkinson (Poems) (2000) II line 239: To the cocatrice in ane creill they send it.
1592		T. Kyd Soliman and Perseda D2: What are thy lookes? but like a Cockatrice, That seekes to wound poore silly passengers.
1604		Dekker Honest Whore Pt 1 III iii: You, goody Punck, subaudi Cockatrice, O yare a sweet whore of your promise.
1607		G. Wilkins Miseries of an Enforced Marriage Act IV: Look ye, go not to your gills, your punks, and your cock-tricks with it.
1610		Jonson Alchemist V iii: Punk, cockatrice, my sister [...] You are a whore.
1623		J. Taylor ‘World runnes on Wheeles’ in Works (1869) II 237: Many a hired Coachman [...] may manne a brace or a Leash of these curuetting Cockatrices to their places of recreation, and so saue them the charge of maintaining a Sir pandarus or an Apple-squire.
1636		W. Davenant Wits I i: Deny’d to pledge Thy cockatrice’s health.
1648		New News Strange News 4: Those Libidinous Goats have been Coach’d Caroach’d and Sedland to their Cockatrician, Meretrician (Dames, Dels, and Doxies).
1649		‘Junius Florilegus’ Odious, Despicable, and Dreadfull condition of a Drunkard 28: She hath a priviledge above other temptations; for Cockatrice-like, she killeth with her very sight: yea she is able to take a man with her very eyelids.
1651		T. Randolph Hey for Honesty IV iii: Now he is rich, he will have the best and plumpest cockatrice of the city.
1663		J. Wilson Cheats I i: What has become of your small cockatrice, the astrologer Mopus his wife?
1687		C. Sedley Bellamira IV ii: Prithee let me see thy Punk, thy Cockatrice, thy Harlot.
1690		Dryden Don Sebastian 82: I am disgrac’d for ever: O thou art a venomous Cockatrice.
c.1700		London-Bawd (1705) 6: The Bane of Virtue [...] Pander to Hell, is this She-Cockatrice.
1709		M. Pix Adventures in Madrid III iii: Thou Viper hatch’d from the Egg of a Cockatrice; odso, thou Dalilah the second.
1728		J. Dalton Narrative of Street-Robberies 60: False B----s, traiterous Cockatrices, they have ruin’d me.
1740		Poor Robin n.p.: Some gallants will this month be so penurious that they will not part with a crackd groat to a poor body, but on their cockatrice or punquetto will bestow half a dozen taffety gowns, who in requittal bestows on him the French pox [N].
1748		Smollett Roderick Random (1979) 53: Yes, cockatrice [...] thou knowest thou did’st spread this snare for me.
1777		Garrick Country Girl V ii: How dare you look me in the face, cockatrice?
1790		M.P. Andrews Better Late than Never 56: Oh, cockatrice, don’t think of imposing on me.
1822		R. Nares Gloss. (1888) I 173: Cockatrice was also a current name for a loose woman; probably from the fascination of the eye.
1843		W.T. Moncrieff Scamps of London I i: The cockatrice!
1896		Farmer Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 67: Cocatrix, m. An old and worn-out whore; ‘a cockatrice’.

2. a baby [the monster is born from an egg].

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 234/2: C.18–19.