cluck
1 Americanverb (used without object)
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clucks,
present (3rd person singular)
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clucked,
past participle, past
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clucking
present participle
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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)
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clucks,
present (3rd person singular)
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clucked,
past participle, past
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clucking
present participle
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
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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clucksimple
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cluckssimple
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have cluckedperfect
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has cluckedperfect
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am cluckingprogressive
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are cluckingprogressive
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is cluckingprogressive
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have been cluckingperfect progressive
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has been cluckingperfect progressive
Past
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cluckedsimple
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had cluckedperfect
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was cluckingprogressive
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were cluckingprogressive
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had been cluckingperfect progressive
Future
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.
See Examples For:
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
There is no word on when the huge henhouse will cluck again.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 13, 2023
They stare through the glass, they cluck their tongues, they frown while I watch my TV.
From "The One and Only Ivan" by Katherine Applegate
“Suddenly with a plop, the egg landed on the straw. With clucks of pleasure the hen shook her feathers, nudged the egg with her beak, and left,” Goodall wrote almost 60 years later.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2025
A University of Queensland-led study has found humans can tell if chickens are excited or displeased, just by the sound of their clucks.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 2, 2024
And that could lead to a future with many more happy clucks.
From Science Magazine ● Jun. 28, 2022
My rooster's clucks are used to refer to the food – with the hens understanding that reference.
From Salon ● May 30, 2022
He chose a shady spot under a vast tree with branches overhanging the water, but with the murmur of the river and the clucks, chirps, and chirrups all around, he soon drifted off to sleep.
From "Flying Through Water" by Mamle Wolo
“The difference is the facts,” Mr. Smith clucked.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2025
In the tangled stanza he creatively plays with clucked and plucked and how other rappers don't paint pictures, they just trace them.
From Salon ● Sep. 3, 2023
The chief clucked his tongue some more, lapsing into silence.
From Slate ● Nov. 26, 2022
Deanna Lin, who owns four chickens in Menlo Park, was unaware of the outbreak as her four hens clucked and scratched across her yard last week.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2022
He clucked to the horse and tapped the reins and they took off.
From "The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup and a Spool of Thread" by Kate DiCamillo
It’s as though we, the attendees of prestige cinema, are peering down on our social inferiors, clucking condescendingly while we credit ourselves with advanced empathy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 8, 2026
This term means that the hens are not kept in cages, but it doesn’t mean they’re clucking around in the fresh air and sunshine.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 17, 2023
And feeding chickens turns out to be a clucking good solution to a few specific climate challenges.
From Slate ● Apr. 5, 2023
Residents in Glasgow housing estates could soon be hearing the sound of mooing cows and clucking hens outside their homes.
From BBC ● Dec. 8, 2022
“Traitors!” spit Miss Grybas under her breath, clucking her tongue.
From "Between Shades of Gray" by Ruta Sepetys
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.
