n. & v.
n. a chicken or esp. game bird split open and grilled.
v.tr. 1 treat (poultry) in this way. 2 colloq. insert or interpolate (a phrase, sentence, story, etc.) esp. incongruously.
[ orig. in Ir. use, expl. by Grose (1785) as f. dispatch-cock, but cf. SPITCHCOCK ]