Brewer's: 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

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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