duck

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Any of various wild or domesticated swimming birds of the family Anatidae, characteristically having a broad, flat bill, short legs, and webbed feet.
2. n. A female duck.
3. n. The flesh of a duck used as food.
4. n. Slang A person, especially one thought of as peculiar.
5. n. Chiefly British A dear. Often used in the plural with a singular verb.
6. v. To lower quickly, especially so as to avoid something: ducked his head as the ball came toward him.
7. v. To evade; dodge: duck responsibility; ducked the reporter's question.
8. v. To push suddenly under water. See Synonyms at dip.
9. v. Games To deliberately play a card that is lower than (an opponent's card).
10. v. To lower the head or body.
11. v. To move swiftly, especially so as to escape being seen: ducked behind a bush.
12. v. To submerge the head or body briefly in water.
13. v. To evade a responsibility or obligation. Often used with out: duck out on one's family.
14. v. Games To lose a trick by deliberately playing lower than one's opponent.
15. n. A quick lowering of the head or body.
16. n. A plunge into water.
17. n. A durable, closely woven heavy cotton or linen fabric.
18. n. Clothing made of duck, especially white trousers.
19. n. An amphibious military truck used during World War II.
20. n. An amphibious truck used in emergencies, as to evacuate flood victims.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To plunge the head or the whole body into water and immediately withdraw; make a dip.
2. To nod or bob the head suddenly; bow.
3. Hence To give way; yield; cringe.
4. To dip or plunge in water and immediately withdraw: as, to duck a witch or a scold.
5. To lower or bend down suddenly, as in dodging a missile or an obstacle, or in saluting awkwardly: as, to duck the head.
6. n. A diving inclination of the head.
7. n. A lamellirostral natatorial bird of the family Anatidœ and subfamily Anatinœ or Fuligulinœ (which see). The technical distinction between any duck and other birds of the same family, as geese and mergansers, is not clear; but a duck may usually be recognized by the broad and fiat bill, short legs, scutellate tarsi, and entirely feathered head. The common wild duck or mallard is Anas boscas, the feral stock of the domestic duck. The species of ducks are numerous, about 125, divided into some 40 modern genera, and found in nearly all parts of the world. Most ducks fall in one or the other of two series, fresh-water ducks or river-ducks, Anatinœ, and salt-water ducks or sea-ducks, Fuligulinœ; and from the latter a few are sometimes detached to form a third subfamily, Erismaturinœ; but the implied distinction in habits by no means holds good, since some or any river-ducks may be found in salt water, and few if any sea-ducks are entirely maritime. The mallard and closely related species now form the restricted genus Anas. Teal are small ducks, chiefly of the genus Querquedula; Q. circia is the garganey. The widgeons form the genus Mareca; the gadwalls. Chaulelasmus; the spoonbills, Spatula; the pintails or sprigtails, Dafila. Certain arboreal ducks of various parts of the world constitute the genus Dendrocygna. The muscovy duck or musk-duck is Cairina moschata. The celebrated mandarin-duck of China and the wood-duck or summer duck of the United States are two species of the genus Aix, A. galericulata and A. sponsa. Sheldrakes or burrow-ducks are of the genus Casarca or Tadorna. A number of sea-ducks with black or red heads are placed in genera variously named Fuligula, Fulix, Aithyia, Nyroca, etc.; such are the scaups and pochards, the canvasback, and others. The buffleheads, goldeneyes, and whistlewings belong to a genus variously called Clangula, Glaucion, and Bucephala. The harlequin duck is Histrionicus histrionicus or H. minutus. The old-wife or long-tailed duck is Harelda glacialis. The Labrador duck, Camptolœmus labradorius, is notable as being probably on the point of extinction; it is a near relative of the steamer-duck of South America, Micropterus cinereus. Eiders are large sea-ducks of the genus Somateria and some related genera. Scoters and surfducks, also called sea-coots, are large black sea-ducks of the genus Œdemia and its subdivisions. The ruddy ducks belong to the genus Erismatura and some related genera. Fishing-ducks, so called, are not properly ducks, but mergansers (Merginœ).
8. n. The female duck, as distinguished from the male, or drake (which see).
9. n. Some webfooted bird likened to or mistaken for a duck: as, the cobbler's-awl duck (that is, the avoset).
10. n. One of the stones used in playing the game of duck on drake.
11. n. The velvet scoter.
12. n. The surf-scoter.
13. n. The ruddy duck.
14. n. The female mallard.
15. n. The female pintail.
16. n. The harlequin.
17. n. The hooded merganser. Also called water-pheasant.
18. n. Specifically— The wood-duck (which see). See Aix.
19. n. The garganey or summer tcal, Querquedula circia.
20. n. Hence— To handle or use a thing recklessly; scatter; squander; throw into confusion: with with or of.
21. n. The wood-duck or summer duck, which breeds in trees.
22. n. The hooded merganser: so called from breeding in trees.
23. n. A sweetheart; a darling: a word of endearment, fondness, or admiration. It is sometimes also applied to things: as, a duck of a bonnet.
24. n. A strong linen fabric simply woven without twill, lighter than canvas, and used for small sails, sails for pleasure-boats, and for men's wear. Duck is usually white or unbleached, but is sometimes made in plain colors.
25. n. A cotton fabric sometimes considered the second grade, for strength and durability, after double-warp (which see, under warp).
26. In bridge, to lead a suit from the dealer or the dummy hand, and make no attempt to win the trick third hand, even when able to do so. See underplay.
27. n. In cricket, no score; zero: short for duck's-egg (which see).

Wiktionary

1. n. An aquatic bird of the family Anatidae, having a flat bill and webbed feet.
2. n. Specifically, an adult female duck; contrasted with drake and with duckling.
3. n. uncountable The flesh of a duck used as food.
4. n. cricket A batsman's score of zero after getting out. (short for duck's egg, since the digit "0" is round like an egg.)
5. n. A term of endearment
6. n. UK Dear, Mate (informal way of addressing a friend or stranger).
7. n. slang A playing card with the rank of two.
8. n. A partly-flooded cave passage with limited air space.
9. n. A building intentionally constructed in the shape of an everyday object to which it is related.
10. n. A marble to be shot at with another marble (the shooter) in children's games.
11. n. A tightly-woven cotton fabric used as sailcloth.
12. v. intransitive To lower the head or body in order to prevent it from being struck by something.
13. v. transitive To lower (something) into water.
14. v. transitive To lower (the head) in order to prevent it from being struck by something.
15. v. transitive To try to evade doing something.
16. v. transitive To lower the volume of (a sound) so that other sounds in the mix can be heard more clearly.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A pet; a darling.
2. n. A linen (or sometimes cotton) fabric, finer and lighter than canvas, -- used for the lighter sails of vessels, the sacking of beds, and sometimes for men's clothing.
3. n. (Naut.), colloq. The light clothes worn by sailors in hot climates.
4. v. To thrust or plunge under water or other liquid and suddenly withdraw.
5. v. To plunge the head of under water, immediately withdrawing it.
6. v. To bow; to bob down; to move quickly with a downward motion.
7. v. To go under the surface of water and immediately reappear; to dive; to plunge the head in water or other liquid; to dip.
8. v. To drop the head or person suddenly; to bow.
9. n. (Zool.) Any bird of the subfamily Anatinæ, family Anatidæ.
10. n. A sudden inclination of the bead or dropping of the person, resembling the motion of a duck in water.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. (cricket) a score of nothing by a batsman
2. v. submerge or plunge suddenly
3. v. avoid or try to avoid fulfilling, answering, or performing (duties, questions, or issues)
4. n. flesh of a duck (domestic or wild)
5. n. small wild or domesticated web-footed broad-billed swimming bird usually having a depressed body and short legs
6. v. to move (the head or body) quickly downwards or away
7. v. dip into a liquid
8. n. a heavy cotton fabric of plain weave; used for clothing and tents