cog

Meaning

Noun

1. A tooth on a gear.
2. A gear; a cogwheel.
3. An unimportant individual in a greater system.
4. 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.
5. One of the rough pillars of stone or coal left to support the roof of a mine.

Verb

1. To furnish with a cog or cogs.
2. Of an electric motor or generator, to snap preferentially to certain positions when not energized.

Verb

1. To load (a die) so that it can be used to cheat.
2. To cheat; to play or gamble fraudulently.
3. To seduce, or draw away, by adulation, artifice, or falsehood; to wheedle; to cozen; to cheat.
4. To plagiarize.
5. To obtrude or thrust in, by falsehood or deception; to palm off.

Synonyms

tooth

🦷

sprocket

gear

⚙️

prong

underhand action

cheat

bloom

cogwheel

tenon

dishonest action

jib

joggle

joint

nog

notch

pearly

peg

pin

ratchet

serration

stick

teeth

🦷

tine

tongue

👅

trick

trickery

timber crib

pin tooth

timber pack

wooden chock

cheating

chopper

crib

cribbing

deception

detent

fraud

gib

imposture

Pronounced as (IPA)

/kɒɡ/

Etymology

From Middle English cogge, from Old Norse [Term?] (compare Norwegian kugg (“cog”), Swedish kugg, kugge (“cog, tooth”)), from Proto-Germanic *kuggō (compare Dutch kogge (“cogboat”), German Kock), from Proto-Indo-European *gugā (“hump, ball”) (compare Lithuanian gugà (“pommel, hump, hill”)), from *gēw- (“to bend, arch”).
The meaning of “cog” in carpentry derives from association with a tooth on a cogwheel.