cluck

Alternative forms

• clutch (dialectal)
• clock

Etymology

From Middle English clokken, clocken, from Old English cloccian (“to cluck, make a noise”), 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”).

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ʌk

Noun

cluck (plural clucks)

1. The sound made by a hen, especially when brooding, or calling her chicks.
2. Any sound similar to this.
3. A kind of tongue click used to urge on a horse.

Verb

cluck (third-person singular simple present clucks, present participle clucking, simple past and past participle clucked)

1. (intransitive) To make such a sound.
2. (transitive) To cause (the tongue) to make a clicking sound.

   My mother clucked her tongue in disapproval.

3. To call together, or call to follow, as a hen does her chickens.
   • Shakespeare

     She, poor hen, fond of no second brood, / Has clucked three to the wars.

4. (Britain, drug slang) to suffer withdrawal from heroin.

See also

• cackle