clack

American  

[klak] / klæk /

verb (used without object)

1. 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.

2. to talk rapidly and continually or with sharpness and abruptness; chatter.

3. to cluck or cackle.

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verb (used with object)

1. to utter by clacking.

2. to cause to clack.

   He clacked the cup against the saucer.

noun

1. a clacking sound.

2. something that clacks, as a rattle.

3. rapid, continual talk; chatter.

clack British  

/ klæk /

verb

1. to make or cause to make a sound like that of two pieces of wood hitting each other

2. (intr) to jabber

3. a less common word for cluck

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noun

1. a short sharp sound

2. a person or thing that produces this sound

3. chatter

4. Also called: clack valve.  a simple nonreturn valve using either a hinged flap or a ball

Etymology

Origin of clack

1200–50; Middle English clacken; imitative

Example Sentences

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

“Let’s go, let’s go,” Barraza says, striding through the halls, each clack of his leather boots ringing out like an act of defiance to a society that has long rejected people like him.

From Seattle Times • Feb. 1, 2024

The monkeys might clack the stones together in their hands, for instance, or pick them up and drop them over and over again.

From New York Times • Aug. 26, 2022

Slowly, at first, pivoting on the balls of his feet, his felt shoes made a metallic clack on the stone floor—an unfamiliar sound to me.

From "The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams" by Daniel Nayeri