cluck

¹ American  

[kluhk] / klʌk /

verb (used without object)

1. to utter the cry of a hen brooding or calling her chicks.

2. to make a similar sound; express concern, approval, etc., by such a sound.

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verb (used with object)

1. to call or utter by clucking.

noun

1. the sound uttered by a hen when brooding, or in calling her chicks.

2. any clucking sound.

cluck ² American  

[kluhk] / klʌk /

noun

Slang.

1. a dull-witted, stupid person; blockhead; dolt.

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cluck British  

/ klʌk /

noun

1. the low clicking sound made by a hen or any similar sound

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verb

1. (intr) (of a hen) to make a clicking sound

2. (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

Example Sentences

It certainly also helps that chicken thighs, by wide acclaim, are more difficult to cluck up in the kitchen.

From The Wall Street Journal

They are forever setting on nests hatching out chicks, brooding and clucking and attacking anything that comes close.

From Literature

Overhead the hens were clucking on their rope.

From Literature

I fed Milk and Nothing and the chickens, and they all bleated and brayed and clucked at me for more.

From Literature

One of them made clucking noises like a chicken.

From Literature

Related Words

• coo