/klʌk/, /klʊk/
OriginFrom Middle English clokken, clocken, from Old English cloccian (“to cluck, make a noise”), from Proto-West Germanic *klukkwōn, from Proto-Germanic *klukkwōną (“to make a sound, cluck”), of imitative origin.
Cognate with Scots clok, clock (“to cluck”), Dutch klokken (“to cluck”), Low German klucken (“to cluck”), German glucken (“to cluck”), Danish klukke (“to cluck”), Swedish klucka (“to cluck”), Icelandic klökkva (“to sob, whine, cluck”).
- The sound made by a hen, especially when brooding, or calling her chicks.
- Any sound similar to this.
- A kind of tongue click used to urge on a horse.
- TexasA setting hen.
- intransitiveTo make low clicking sounds (refers to hens).
“"I came across him once," he continued, "when he was playing down on the main road to Skaug; there he sat in the middle of the road with a lot of hens around him, I counted seven, and there were more ”
- transitiveTo cause (the tongue) to make a clicking sound.
“My mother clucked her tongue in disapproval.”
- To call together, or call to follow, as a hen does her chickens.
“When she, poor hen, fond of no second brood,
Has clucked thee to the wars and safely home.”
- BritishTo suffer withdrawal from heroin.
Formsclucks(plural) · clutch(alternative, dialectal) · clock(alternative) · clucks(present, singular, third-person) · clucking(participle, present) · clucked(participle, past) · clucked(past) · Clucks(plural)