cackle

[kak-uh l]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR cackle ON THESAURUS.COM

verb (used without object), cack·led, cack·ling.

to utter a shrill, broken sound or cry, as of a hen.

to laugh in a shrill, broken manner.

to chatter noisily; prattle.

verb (used with object), cack·led, cack·ling.

to utter with cackles; express by cackling: They cackled their disapproval.

noun

the act or sound of cackling.

chatter; idle talk.

Nearby words

Origin of cackle

1175–1225; Middle English cakelen; cognate with Dutch kakelen, Low German kakeln, Swedish kackla

Related formscack·ler, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for cackle

For most of the film I was too mortified to actually laugh out loud, but that one got a cackle from me.
Real Pilots Laugh at ‘Flight’|Patrick Smith|November 18, 2012|DAILY BEAST
Kabakov is the Beckett of the art world, creating silences and divorcing himself from the cackle.
Is This Anti-Soviet Art?|Jimmy So|October 22, 2011|DAILY BEAST
“I am wreaking a double vengeance,” writes Cellini, barely suppressing a cackle.
The First Celebrity Tell-All|Nathaniel Rich|September 22, 2010|DAILY BEAST
The cackle of a hen, after having laid an egg and left her nest, is decidedly characteristic.
Scientific American Supplement, No. 841, February 13, 1892|Various

Now move on, and mind you cackle properly, and bow your head before that old duck yonder, who is the noblest born of them all.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 109, August 10, 1895|Various
From the old worldling broke forth an involuntary low laugh, which was a sort of cackle.
T. Tembarom|Frances Hodgson Burnett
Chickens began to cackle, and to their ears came the sound of pounding feet.
The Wishing Well|Mildred A. Wirt
He soon began to bark like Fid, and to growl like Bronti; to cackle like the hens, and to imitate every loud noise that he heard.
Kindness to Animals|Charlotte Elizabeth

British Dictionary definitions for cackle

cackle

verb

(intr) (esp of a hen) to squawk with shrill notes

(intr) to laugh or chatter raucously

(tr) to utter in a cackling manner

noun

the noise or act of cackling

noisy chatter

cut the cackle informal to stop chattering; be quiet

Derived Formscackler, noun

Word Origin for cackle

C13: probably from Middle Low German kākelen, of imitative origin

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for cackle

cackle

early 13c., imitative (see cachinnation); perhaps partly based on Middle Dutch kake "jaw." Related: Cackled; cackling. As a noun from 1670s. Cackleberries, slang for "eggs" is first recorded 1880.

cackle

verb (used without object), cack·led, cack·ling.

verb (used with object), cack·led, cack·ling.

noun

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Origin of cackle

Examples from the Web for cackle

cackle

verb

noun

Word Origin for cackle

cackle