clack
Americanverb (used without object)
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clacks,
present (3rd person singular)
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clacked,
past participle, past
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clacking
present participle
-
to make a quick, sharp sound, or a succession of such sounds, as by striking or cracking.
The loom clacked busily under her expert hands.
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to talk rapidly and continually or with sharpness and abruptness; chatter.
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to cluck or cackle.
verb (used with object)
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clacks,
present (3rd person singular)
-
clacked,
past participle, past
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clacking
present participle
-
to utter by clacking.
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to cause to clack.
He clacked the cup against the saucer.
noun
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clacks
plural
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a clacking sound.
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something that clacks, as a rattle.
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rapid, continual talk; chatter.
verb
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to make or cause to make a sound like that of two pieces of wood hitting each other
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(intr) to jabber
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a less common word for cluck
noun
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a short sharp sound
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a person or thing that produces this sound
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chatter
-
Also called: clack valve. a simple nonreturn valve using either a hinged flap or a ball
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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clacksimple
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clackssimple
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have clackedperfect
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has clackedperfect
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am clackingprogressive
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are clackingprogressive
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is clackingprogressive
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have been clackingperfect progressive
-
has been clackingperfect progressive
Past
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clackedsimple
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had clackedperfect
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was clackingprogressive
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were clackingprogressive
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had been clackingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of clack
1200–50; Middle English clacken; imitative
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:
Dozens of “staff members” fill rows of desks in the bullpen — some clack away on keyboards, others have phone receivers sandwiched between their head and shoulders while taking notes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
There is the intermittent purr of generators, dogs barking, and, from time to time, the dry clack of domino tiles echoing in the street.
From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026
Imagine “the incessant clack of cowboy boots against the cobblestones” that could have been, he thinks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2025
I will read each new directive from my political leadership and clack away at my keyboard to implement it as best as I can.
From Slate ● Feb. 7, 2025
“I like a man who drinks tomato juice. So earthy,” Raven says over the music and the clack of billiard balls.
From "The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman" by Gennifer Choldenko
The camera cuts to Elizabeth’s actual surroundings: a New York City apartment, where the radiator clacks and hisses in place of a crackling fire, and the view is brick, not snow-dusted pasture.
From Salon ● Dec. 25, 2025
It is a kitchen of clicks and clacks, of ASMR, of packets ripped open and weekly restock hauls.
From Slate ● Mar. 15, 2025
To keep the audience on its toes, some scene changes are punctuated by blinding lights and obnoxiously loud flashbulb clacks.
From New York Times ● May 24, 2024
She visits the market, for instance; he clacks at a typewriter.
From Washington Post ● May 5, 2022
People cheer for us, and Rosa waves and clacks her clappers in the air and calls, “Hi!” and “Thank you!”
From "The Running Dream" by Wendelin Van Draanen
When friends clacked at keyboards, examined patients, or taught middle schoolers math, I bicycled Arthur's froggy legs because humans aren't born knowing how to pass gas.
From Salon ● Nov. 27, 2022
Below, amid leafy plants and colorful lighting, employees at tech start-ups clacked away on MacBooks and sketched on whiteboards.
From New York Times ● Feb. 22, 2022
They might have growled, hissed, clicked or even bill clacked, opening and closing their beaks to make a clattering sound.
From Scientific American ● Jan. 10, 2022
“All of those are usually traced back to just having been animal bones clacked together, probably in prehistoric times.”
From Washington Post ● Oct. 29, 2018
Over the intercom, Festus clacked and clicked about leaks belowdecks, but the ship didn’t seem to be in danger of sinking—at least not yet.
From "The Mark of Athena" by Rick Riordan
We saw an egret and a rabbit, and when I heard a clacking sound, Mike brightened.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 14, 2026
There's a reassuring clacking as the individual letters hit the blank white page in quick, noisy succession:
From BBC ● Jan. 14, 2026
To be completely fair, if Perkins sought out to make a film that was brutal for brutality’s sake, I might not even be sitting here, clacking away on my keyboard.
From Salon ● Feb. 26, 2025
They rolled out SpongeBob SquarePants sleeping bags on marble floors that were usually filled with the clacking of legislators’ shoes.
From Slate ● Feb. 19, 2025
They heard strange music as they drew near the shack, like somebody playing a rubber band while clacking castanets.
From "Fablehaven" by Brandon Mull
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.
