duck

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“
To get a duck or be out for a duck is to ` fall flat on one's face, 'to ` fizzle.'

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Definitions (163)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (20)

  1. noun Any of various wild or domesticated swimming birds of the family Anatidae, characteristically having a broad, flat bill, short legs, and webbed feet.
  2. noun A female duck.
  3. noun The flesh of a duck used as food.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (130)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (5)

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Examples

  • To get a duck or be out for a duck is to ` fall flat on one's face, 'to ` fizzle.' —  VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol IV No 3
  • Hence to break one's duck is to have ` broken the ice, '` made a start' and to ` be on one's way. ' —  VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol IV No 3
  • By the smell it seemed as if rabbit, hare, a chicken or two and possibly a duck were all in the big pot. —  The Rilloby Fair Mystery
  • a blue duck is ` something that fails to meet expectations, a dud, 'and a blue bird, the ` police paddy-wagon.' —  VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol VIII No 3
  • "And we may have to continue the discussion over dinner, because the duck is almost ready. —  The Magic of Recluce
 

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Words tagged duck

quack · muscovy · steelhead · wamp · turducken · hickory head · Hymenolaimus

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Duck has been looked up 519 times, favorited 0 times, listed 34 times, and commented on 9 times.

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

goose ·  chicken ·  pigeon ·  turkey ·  rabbit ·  fowl ·  deer ·  goat ·  hen ·  swan ·  bird ·  lamb
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (9)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (4)

  1. Middle English doke, from Old English dūce, possibly from *dūcan, to dive; see duck2.
  2. Middle English douken, to dive, possibly from Old English *dūcan; akin to Middle Low German and Middle Dutch dūken.
  3. Dutch doek, cloth, from Middle Dutch doec.
  4. Alteration (influenced by duck1) of DUKW.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (5)

  1. from Middle English *dukken (= Middle Dutch ducken = Low German ducken, later G. ducken = Danish dukke, also dykke), duck, dive, stoop; a secondary verb, partly displacing its orig., English dial, and Scots douk, dook, from Middle English douken, dūken, from Anglo-Saxon *dūcan (found only in deriv. duce, a duck: see duck) = Middle Dutch duycken, Dutch duiken = Middle Low German dūken, Low German duken = Old High German tūhhan, Middle High German tūchen, German tauchen = Swedish dyka, orig. intransitive, duck, dive, stoop.
  2. from duck, v.
  3. = Scots duik, duke, dook, from Middle English ducke, dukke, doke, dokke, douke, duke, from Anglo-Saxon dŭce (found only in genitive dŭcan), a duck, literally a ducker, from dūcan (preterit plural *dŭcon, past participle *dŏcen), duck, dive: see duck, v. Cf. ducker, 3; Danish duk-and, dyk-and, a sea-duck (and, duck: see drake); Swedish dyk-fågel, diver, plungeon (fågel = English fowl). So diver, dipper, dopper, etc., names applied to diving birds.
  4. Prob. a familiar use of duck, like dove, chick = chuck, mouse, lamb, French poule, and other zoölogical terms of endearment; but cf. Danish dukke = Swedish docka = East Fries, dokke, dok = German docke, etc., a doll, puppet: see dock. Cf. also doxy.
  5. from Dutch dock, linen cloth, a towel, light canvas, = Middle Low German dōk = Old High German tuoh, Middle High German tuoch, German tuch, cloth, = Icelandic dūkr, any cloth or texture, a table-cloth, a towel, = Swedish duk = Danish dug, cloth.
 

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/dək/
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