cackle

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To make the shrill cry characteristic of a hen after laying an egg.
2. v. To laugh or talk in a shrill manner.
3. v. To utter in cackles: cackled a sarcastic reply.
4. n. The act or sound of cackling.
5. n. Shrill laughter.
6. n. Foolish chatter.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To utter a noisy succession of thin, shrill, broken notes: specifically used of the cry made by a hen after laying an egg or by a goose when excited or alarmed.
2. To laugh with a broken noise like the cackling of a goose; giggle.
3. To prate: prattle; tattle; talk in a silly manner.
4. n. The shrill repeated cry of a goose or hen.
5. n. Idle talk; silly prattle.
6. Nautical, to wind right and left alternately: as, to cackle a cable.

Wiktionary

1. n. The cry of a hen, especially when laying an egg
2. n. A laugh resembling the cry of a hen.
3. v. To laugh with a sound similar to a hen's cry.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To make a sharp, broken noise or cry, as a hen or goose does.
2. v. To laugh with a broken noise, like the cackling of a hen or a goose; to giggle.
3. v. To talk in a silly manner; to prattle.
4. n. The sharp broken noise made by a goose or by a hen that has laid an egg.
5. n. Idle talk; silly prattle.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the sound made by a hen after laying an egg
2. v. talk or utter in a cackling manner
3. v. emit a loud, unpleasant kind of laughing
4. n. noisy talk
5. n. a loud laugh suggestive of a hen's cackle
6. v. squawk shrilly and loudly, characteristic of hens