Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The characteristic sound made by a hen when brooding or calling its chicks.
- n. A sound similar to this.
- n. Informal A stupid or foolish person.
- v. To utter the characteristic sound of a hen.
- v. To make a sound similar to that of a hen, as in coaxing a horse.
- v. To call by making the characteristic sound of a hen or a similar sound.
- v. To express by clucking: He clucked disapproval.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To utter the call or cry of a brooding hen or a hen with young chicks.
- To call or incite by clucking, as a hen her chicks.
- n. A sound uttered by a hen when broody, or in calling her chicks.
- n. Same as click, 2.
Wiktionary
- n. The sound made by a hen, especially when brooding, or calling her chicks.
- n. Any sound similar to this.
- n. A kind of tongue click used to urge on a horse.
- v. To make such a sound.
- v. UK, drug slang to suffer withdrawal from heroin.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To make the noise, or utter the call, of a brooding hen.
- v. To call together, or call to follow, as a hen does her chickens.
- n. The call of a hen to her chickens.
- n. A click. See 3d Click, 2.
WordNet 3.0
- v. make a clucking sounds, characteristic of hens
- n. the sound made by a hen (as in calling her chicks)
Etymologies
- From Middle English clocken, clokken, from Old English cloccian ("to cluck, make a noise"), from Proto-Germanic *klukkwōnan (“to make a sound, cluck”), of imitative origin. Cognate with Scots clok, clock ("to cluck"), Dutch klokken ("to cluck"), Low German klukken ("to cluck"), German glucken ("to cluck"), Danish klukke ("to cluck"), Swedish klucka ("to cluck"), Icelandic klökkva ("to sob, whine, cluck"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English clokken, from Old English cloccian. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The common cluck is presented with so much nonsense to sift through its no wonder that Atkins diets and similar ilk get more attention (and thus validity in the public eye) by popularizing one or two bad ideas and focusing on that.”
Matthew Yglesias » Health Scares Reduce Smoking, But Not Obeisity
“The easiest way I do a cluck is press your tongue firmly in the center of the latex and say took along with a burst of air.”
“Those who don't like a rogue's progress, preferring to cluck from a distance over the skeevy habits of today's rich bachelors, should skip Sons of Hollywood," writes Virginia Heffernan.”
“In French, cocotte (the feminine diminutive of coq) is originally a child's name for "hen" (coq...cocotte) (in English "cluck-cluck") and has a further two meanings: my sweetie ("ma cocotte") and "tart" (as in trollop or kept-woman).”
“Thus prepared, he takes his "call," and gives one solitary "cluck" - so exquisitely - that it chimes in with the running brook and the rustling leaf.”
“She eats chicken (she really eats that drumstick -- and it's kind of beautiful), calls George a "cluck," and they booze it up.”
“I am too sensitive to make a list of all the insults I get, but they would go "cluck" or something so far, I think I've been called forms of chicken, dog, and sow!”
“My thumbs can do that too, I can also wiggle my ears, and bend some of my toes individually, roll and "cluck" my tongue...i'm gonna stop here, theres more but I'm starting to sound like a circus freak!”
“It was about 90 degrees and they would "cluck" if even a foot was exposed under the blanket.”
“Three johns are crying foul, as in what the "cluck"?”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘cluck’.
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Olde Englisc
English words of Anglo-Saxon origin.
onslaught, slain, clove, clave, thrice, nincompoop, scorn, storm, scant, lurk, beneath, atop and 143 more...
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Onomatopoetic
words (seemingly) formed in imitation of a natural sound
plash, guff, woof, splash, crash, pow, crack, bang, whoosh, whizz, whallop, fizz and 116 more...
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El perro hace guau guau
Animal sounds in different languages, and the verbs that specify them.
Since Georgetown took down their page, the current definitive website for this information is:
Abbott ani...øf-øf, knor knor, groin groin, grunz, röf-röf, boo boo, hrgu hrgu, nöff-nöff, oink-oink, zumbar, ulular, rebuznar and 154 more...
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sound (quiet)
words for quiet sounds
( randomness, descriptive )sigh, murmur, whisper, whir, rustle, patter, hum, snap, hiss(sss), crackle, bleat, peep and 185 more...
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Words That Mean Things
I found most of these words in books! That means they MUST be good.
flinders, periplus, palaver, midden, cadge, legerdemain, flense, lapidary, geas, bailey, susurration, satoris and 128 more...
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Onomatopoetics
Words formed in imitation of a natural sound.
bumble-bee, rat-a-tat, blurt, clink, chickadee, rub-a-dub, chirr, chug, keck, flim-flam, brekekekex, thunk and 94 more...
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mal03121's list
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Animal Sounds
with sound effects.
screech, hiss, growl, hum, buzz, chirrup, chirp, tweet, birdsong, whistle, bleat, meow and 30 more...
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animal sound verbs
limited to non-onomatopoeic words
chitter, gibber, hum, buzz, chirrup, mew, whistle, boom, bellow, caterwaul, fink, low and 49 more...
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the stuff of thought - steven pinker
vroom, whump, zing, hoity-toity, warble, cluck, schlep, bunt, punt, tote, blitz, extirpate and 2 more...
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Song of Myself
Interesting words from Walt Whitman's poem of the same title
http://www.princeton.edu/~batke/logr/log_026.htmlturbid, accoucheur, duds, florid, robust, sauroid, torpid, ordure, koboo, thrum, unintermitted, swash and 28 more...
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Animal Sounds
woof, ruff, bow wow, yap, arf, yip, mew, meow, moo, oink, growl, roar and 27 more...
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Birdsong
Coo'.
caw, twitter, toot, tweet, coo, crow, cock-a-doodle-doo, hoot, warble, cheep, chirp, trumpet and 14 more...
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goldengaell's Words
Tweets
Looking for tweets for cluck.
yarb I would say it was more of a clock than a cluck. Feb 24, 2010
bilby Try doing it faster. Feb 24, 2010
tusseymountain Is cluck the best word for the sound made when you move your tongue suddenly from the roof of your mouth to the floor of your mouth? The sound kids use to imitate horses. Seems like there's another word for that but my brain is stuck on cluck! Feb 24, 2010