/ʃʌk/, /ʃʊk/
OriginOrigin unknown. Possibly a dialectal survival of unrecorded Middle English *schulk(e), *schullok (“small shell”); either from Old English *sċylluc, *sċylloc, diminutive of Old English sċyll (“shell”), or alternatively created in Middle English from Middle English schulle, schelle (“shell, husk, pod”) + -ok, making it equivalent to shell + -ock (diminutive suffix) or shell + -k (diminutive suffix).
- The shell or husk, especially of grains (e.g. corn/maize) or nuts (e.g. walnuts).
“There was no linen, no pillow, and when she touched the mattress it gave forth the faint dry whisper of shucks.”
- slangA fraud; a scam.
- slangA phony.
- EuropeanA supernatural and generally malevolent black dog in English folklore.
- transitiveTo remove the shuck from (walnuts, oysters, etc.).
“Shall we shuck walnuts?”
- transitiveTo remove (any outer covering).
“I will shuck my clothes and dive naked into the pool.”
“[...] but what had actually happened was that the wheel of one of the coaches became detached from its axle, or, in the more expressive American argot, the train "shucked off a wheel near Everett."”
- slang, transitiveTo remove (an external hard drive or solid-state drive) from its casing so that it can be used inside another device.
- intransitive, slang, transitiveTo fool; to hoax.
- dialectalTo shake; shiver.
- dialectalTo slither or slip, move about, wriggle.
- dialectalTo do hurriedly or in a restless way.
- dialectalTo avoid; baffle, outwit, shirk.
- dialectalTo walk at a slow trot.
Formsshucks(plural) · shock(alternative, dialectal) · shucks(present, singular, third-person) · shucking(participle, present) · shucked(participle, past) · shucked(past) · Shucks(plural)