cackle
Americanverb (used without object)
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to utter a shrill, broken sound or cry, as of a hen.
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to laugh in a shrill, broken manner.
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to chatter noisily; prattle.
verb (used with object)
noun
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the act or sound of cackling.
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chatter; idle talk.
verb
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(intr) (esp of a hen) to squawk with shrill notes
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(intr) to laugh or chatter raucously
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(tr) to utter in a cackling manner
noun
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the noise or act of cackling
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noisy chatter
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informal to stop chattering; be quiet
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Conjugated Forms
Present
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have cackledperfect
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has cackledperfect 3rd person singular
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has been cacklingperfect progressive 3rd person singular
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am cacklingprogressive 1st person singular
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have been cacklingperfect progressive
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is cacklingprogressive 3rd person singular
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cacklingparticiple
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cacklessingular 3rd person
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are cacklingprogressive
Past
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had cackledperfect
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had been cacklingperfect progressive
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was cacklingprogressive singular
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cackledparticiple
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were cacklingprogressive plural
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cackledsimple
Future
Etymology
Origin of cackle
1175–1225; Middle English cakelen; cognate with Dutch kakelen, Low German kakeln, Swedish kackla
Explanation
To cackle is to laugh in a loud, harsh way. Your dad's jokes might be so bad that they're funny, making you cackle every time. When you cackle, people hear you — it's annoying to sit in an otherwise quiet restaurant beside a table of people who talk and cackle raucously. The sound the cacklers make can also be called a cackle, a squawking laugh that a chicken might make. Experts think there may be a connection between cackle and the Middle Dutch word for "jaw," kake, but it's most likely to be imitative, a word that sounds just like the noise it describes.
Vocabulary lists containing cackle
The Crossover
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Ungifted
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"The Moustache" and "Who We Really Are"
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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.
“Demand is up, but we’ve not expanded for the last three years because we don’t have the work force,” said Jeff Smith, one of the owners of Cackle Hatchery in Missouri.
From New York Times • Feb. 2, 2023
"Cackle, cackle, what do you think, I went to the store to buy some ink, Paper and pen a letter to write, But they told me they'd all sold out last night."
From Little Jack Rabbit and Uncle John Hare by Cory, David
Her Complexion was like Parchment and her Voice had been worn to a Cackle.
From More Fables by Ade, George
They were bad enough, But what a deal of skimble-skamble stuff Will Mrs. FAWCETT's Middle-aged Ones talk When these eight hundred thousand hens o' the walk Cackle for Order, Purity, and Peace!!!
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 101, December 5, 1891 by Various
Cackle, cackle, crow, crow, from, it seemed, hundreds of throats.
From The Children's Pilgrimage by Meade, L. T.
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.
