cluck
1 Americanverb (used without object)
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clucks,
present (3rd person singular)
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clucked,
past participle, past
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clucking
present participle
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to utter the cry of a hen brooding or calling her chicks.
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to make a similar sound; express concern, approval, etc., by such a sound.
verb (used with object)
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clucks,
present (3rd person singular)
-
clucked,
past participle, past
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clucking
present participle
noun
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the sound uttered by a hen when brooding, or in calling her chicks.
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any clucking sound.
noun
noun
verb
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(intr) (of a hen) to make a clicking sound
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(tr) to call or express (a feeling) by making a similar sound
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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clucksimple
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cluckssimple
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have cluckedperfect
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has cluckedperfect
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am cluckingprogressive
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are cluckingprogressive
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is cluckingprogressive
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have been cluckingperfect progressive
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has been cluckingperfect progressive
Past
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cluckedsimple
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had cluckedperfect
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was cluckingprogressive
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were cluckingprogressive
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had been cluckingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of cluck1
1475–85; variant of clock 1 (now dial. and Scot), Middle English clokken, Old English cloccian to cluck; cognate with Dutch klokken
Origin of cluck2
1900–05, special use of cluck 1
Explanation
The sound a chicken makes is a cluck. One of the best things about keeping chickens in your yard is watching them scratch the dirt and listening to their clucks. A chicken or hen clucks when she's rounding up her chicks, making a short, relatively deep sound. To do this is also to cluck, and you can use the word to talk about a fussy or overprotective parent too: "It's so funny watching him cluck over his kids at the playground." The Old English root of cluck is cloccian, and both words are imitative — they echo the sound they're describing.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
It certainly also helps that chicken thighs, by wide acclaim, are more difficult to cluck up in the kitchen.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 19, 2026
"Everyone has their own inyeon," they cluck back.
From Salon ● Jul. 15, 2023
With the annual Thanksgiving holidays fast approaching, the agency leaned heavily into festive puns in their caption, quipping that its officers "are always working around the cluck to keep you safe".
From BBC ● Nov. 8, 2022
Mochrie was eager for a challenge, even if he worried that the laughs would come from making audiences cluck like chickens.
From New York Times ● Aug. 15, 2022
I’ll never again snuggle into Lita, rub the soft underside of her arm, and listen to one of her cuentos while her chickens cluck in the background.
From "The Last Cuentista" by Donna Barba Higuera
A University of Queensland-led study has found humans can tell if chickens are excited or displeased, just by the sound of their clucks.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 2, 2024
And that could lead to a future with many more happy clucks.
From Science Magazine ● Jun. 28, 2022
My rooster's clucks are used to refer to the food – with the hens understanding that reference.
From Salon ● May 30, 2022
The clucks from children coaxing donkeys carrying loads of coal down the mountain.
From New York Times ● Mar. 29, 2022
With a few clucks and some skillful handling of the reins, he urged the horse to pull their carriage sideways, blocking the way.
From "The Unseen Guest" by Maryrose Wood
“The difference is the facts,” Mr. Smith clucked.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2025
In the tangled stanza he creatively plays with clucked and plucked and how other rappers don't paint pictures, they just trace them.
From Salon ● Sep. 3, 2023
The buzzer of the building had been rewired to blast native birdcalls; sidewalk passersby often glanced over their shoulders as a bald eagle clucked.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 15, 2021
She ignored the parents who clucked over their kids’ imperfect hair parts and short attention spans in favor of shooting candid moments, which make for better photographs, she argued.
From Slate ● Apr. 22, 2020
The old ladies clucked in agreement and then they all left me in the middle of the hot courtyard.
From "The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan
It’s as though we, the attendees of prestige cinema, are peering down on our social inferiors, clucking condescendingly while we credit ourselves with advanced empathy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 8, 2026
"He didn't let US government clucking and handwringing stop him," says Robert Carlin.
From BBC ● Jan. 10, 2025
Even a peep of news about a new flu pandemic is enough to set scientists clucking about eggs.
From Salon ● Jun. 1, 2024
This term means that the hens are not kept in cages, but it doesn’t mean they’re clucking around in the fresh air and sunshine.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 17, 2023
“Such a pity, such a waste,” Caul said, clucking his tongue.
From "Hollow City" by Ransom Riggs
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
