Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An unfounded or false, deliberately misleading story.
- n. A short winglike control surface projecting from the fuselage of an aircraft, such as a space shuttle, mounted forward of the main wing and serving as a horizontal stabilizer.
- n. An aircraft whose horizontal stabilizing surfaces are forward of the main wing.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An absurd story or statement intended as an imposition; a fabricated story to which currency is given, as by a newspaper: a hoax.
- n. Hence A broadside cried in the streets: so called from the generally sensational nature of its contents.
- To fly or float about, or circulate as a canard or false report: as, certain stories canarding about the hotels.
- To imitate or produce the peculiar harsh cry of the duck, as an unskilled player on a wind-instrument.
Wiktionary
- n. A false or misleading report or story, especially if deliberately so.
- n. aeronautics A type of aircraft in which the primary horizontal control and stabilization surfaces are in front of the main wing.
- n. transport, engineering Any small winglike structure on a vehicle, usually used for stabilization.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. An extravagant or absurd report or story; a fabricated sensational report or statement; esp. one set afloat in the newspapers to hoax the public.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a deliberately misleading fabrication
Etymologies
- From French canard ("duck"). (Wiktionary)
- French, duck, canard, probably from the phrase vendre un canard à moitié, to sell half a duck, to swindle, from Old French quanart, duck, from caner, to cackle, of imitative origin. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Blog Guy, are you ever going to get over the fact that the word "canard" is duck in French, but a false rumor in English?”
“But, oh oh, looks like that little canard is already falling apart.”
“Thomas, Al, the “disinvite” canard is disingenuous - Blair House has over 100 rooms and amenities like salons and florists on site.”
“If Qwack [Duck [ 'Doc'] Hunt] or his chick-a-dees would ever read the damn thing they would know that this repeal [now defunding HCR] canard is just that – another canard.”
“It reminds me a lot of that hamburger-flipper-as-manufacturing-job canard from a couple of years ago.”
Questions About Blogging, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
“The "anti-Semite" canard is by now old, tired and discredited, but that won't stop certain commentators on the Right from pulling it out of the dumpster and waving it in the air when it suits them.”
“However, the human rights canard is typically used for political reasons in a very different way.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » Iran and the Shortcomings of International Human Rights Law
“I was lamenting the current, miniscule McCain, a man who would take a passing -- and deeply irrelevant -- acquaintanceship between Barack Obama and Ayers, and try to make it a central issue in this absolutely crucial campaign, with the accompanying canard from the Embarracuda that Obama had "palled around" with terrorists.”
“The free will canard is not a show stopper for research.”
“Throwing on the “why are you so threatened” canard is just icing on the cake. artappraiser Says:”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘canard’.
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This is not a list
you know that thing where the Eskimos have 50 words for snow?
little white lie, big lie, the Big Lie, economical with t..., muddy the waters, fabrication, deception, lies, damned lies..., façade, slander, omission, web of lies and 159 more...
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important
shamanism, consol, sanguine, iffy, affinity, concatenation, honed, innumberable, aiden, inexorable, vet, suss and 176 more...
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Of Imitative Origin
Words formed in imitation of the sound of the things they signify.
bawl, biff, blizzard, blob, blooper, bob, boff, bomb, bonkers, boo, borborygmus, brouhaha and 148 more...
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Duck!
If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, or quacks like a duck, then you should probably list it here.
duck, Duck, turducken, duckling, duck tape, Mallard, rubber duckie, Daffy Duck, Donald Duck, lame duck, ducky, ducks and 95 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abject, abjure, abscission, abscond, abstemious, abstinence, abysmal, accretion and 787 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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phrontistery - c
from phrontistery.info
caballine, cabas, cable, caboched, cabochon, caboose, cabotage, cabré, cabrie, cabriole, cabriolet, cacaesthesia and 1298 more...
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(1st_wk_150)-Dec_5_2012
voracious, indiscriminate, eminent, steeped, replete, abound, technology, prognosticate, automaton, matron, paradox, realm and 297 more...
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GRE
droll, dyspeptic, ebullient, ardor, edify, efficacy, malinger, mannered, martinet, maudlin, mendacious, mendicant and 102 more...
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Portmanteau-ism
portmanteau, apophenia, apoplexy, antisyzygy, canard, augur, interstice, sang-froid, agent provocateur, aposiopesis, folderol, twaddle and 5 more...
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man gre
abase, abeyance, abreast, abscission, abscond, abyss, accede, accretion, acerbic, acidulous, acumen, adulterate and 483 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1901 more...
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ICE
quincunx, adoxography, panjundrum, breloque, surd, scripturient, rousant, favrile, embouchure, aquarelle, griffonage, sussultatory and 234 more...
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GRE Words
abjure, unswear, state, rescission, indemnification, ab, reny, abnegate, vitiated, vitiate, adumbrated, abash and 378 more...
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Week 1, Day 1
ignominy, marquee, deter, chariot, stern, perfidy, treacherous, insolent, presumptuous, banish, dubious, livid and 133 more...
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Faves
nepenthe, cupidity, anodyne, obdurate, doleful, obsolescent, quale, piquant, velleity, inchoate, disport, facile and 366 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for canard.
reesetee It comes from the French for "duck," so the color definition makes perfect sense. :-) Interesting OED etymology for the other meaning: "Littré says Canard for a silly story comes from the old expression 'vendre un canard à moitié' (to half-sell a duck), in which à moitié was subsequently suppressed. It is clear that to half-sell a duck is not to sell it at all; hence the sense 'to take in, make a fool of.'" Oct 13, 2008
bilby Beautifully put mollusque. This bird deserves special recognition in Estonia Oct 10, 2008
mollusque A bright, deep blue like that found on a mallard's wing. May 11, 2008
jrome "For centuries, schoolboys first encountered the wisdom of the ancients in this predigested form. When Erasmus told the story of Pandora, he said that she opened not a jar, as in the original version of the story, by the Greek poet Hesiod, but a box. In every European language except Italian, Pandora’s box became proverbial—a canard made ubiquitous by the power of a new information technology." - Future Reading, by Andrew Grafton, The New Yorker, Nov 1 2007 http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/11/05/071105fa_fact_grafton?currentPage=2 Nov 1, 2007
sera "A deliberately misleading fabrication" Aug 13, 2007