duck

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments (8)  · 
“
For example: Humans, wolves and a duck are a polybaraminic group.

View all »
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.
17 more from this dictionary »

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (130)

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

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (8)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

  • I was now standing behind him with my hands clasped around his belly, a wrestling move known as a duck-under. —  GaspingforAirtime
  • If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it's not a duck - it's Pickles. —  Blogger News Network
  • Painman: It honestly looks like a futile exercise with some complete morons. eric: Ok. What walks, flys, and quacks like a duck is a generally a duck. —  Smithers MINNEAPOLIS
  • Duck in grapefruit reduction sauce was served with grapefruit sections tucked in between the slices of duck breast, but the duck was a little rubbery. —  Houston Press | Complete Issue
  • "We were all ordered to assume what we call a duck-and-cover position which is a position where we guard ourselves and bodies from potential debris," Gliha told CNN. —  Assyrian International News Agency
More examples »
 

Tags

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Words tagged duck

Stats

This word has been looked up 340 times.

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Add a related word »
Related

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

Used in the same contextWord Family

duck:   ducks ·  ducked ·  ducking
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.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »
/dək/
by American Heritage

Charts
frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word a few times a week.

Recently looked up

wibbly-wobbly · partisans · skeptic · parlors · self-developed

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

qualms · poofter · oh for heaven's sake · embodies · silence