cluck
1 Americanverb (used without object)
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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)
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
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.
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
“I was on the dance floor acting strange,” the lyrics go, “flapping my arms I began to cluck, look at me, I’m the disco duck.”
From New York Times • Jan. 24, 2024
"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
“Gabe, you naughty thing,” Lily said, with a scolding little cluck toward the grinning toddler on the floor.
From "The Giver" by Lois Lowry
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.
