Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun An unfounded or false, deliberately misleading story.
- noun 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.
- noun An aircraft whose horizontal stabilizing surfaces are forward of the main wing.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun An absurd story or statement intended as an imposition; a fabricated story to which currency is given, as by a newspaper: a hoax.
- noun 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.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun An extravagant or absurd report or story; a fabricated sensational report or statement; esp. one set afloat in the newspapers to hoax the public.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A false or misleading report or story, especially if
deliberately so. - noun aeronautics A type of aircraft in which the primary horizontal control and stabilization surfaces are in front of the main wing.
- noun transport, engineering Any small winglike structure on a vehicle, usually used for stabilization.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a deliberately misleading fabrication
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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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?
Reuters: Press Release Robert Basler 2011
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But, oh oh, looks like that little canard is already falling apart.
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Thomas, Al, the “disinvite” canard is disingenuous - Blair House has over 100 rooms and amenities like salons and florists on site.
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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.
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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 2010
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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 2009
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But, oh oh, looks like that little canard is already falling apart.
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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.
Archive 2009-01-01 2009
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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.
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The free will canard is not a show stopper for research.
Aiguy's Computer 2008
sera commented on the word canard
"A deliberately misleading fabrication"
August 13, 2007
jrome commented on the word canard
"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
November 1, 2007
mollusque commented on the word canard
A bright, deep blue like that found on a mallard's wing.
May 11, 2008
bilby commented on the word canard
Beautifully put mollusque. This bird deserves special recognition in Estonia
October 10, 2008
reesetee commented on the word canard
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.'"
October 13, 2008