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)
-
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
-
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
"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
“If anyone was going to cluck around like a chicken, that would have been me — that was another way they dropped the ball,” says an amused Boggs, adding: “But it worked out great.”
From Washington Post ● Feb. 19, 2022
I listen to the sounds, so different from home: snuffles and rustling of small animals, the odd cluck from the woman’s hens.
From "Without Refuge" by Jane Mitchell
“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
My rooster's clucks are used to refer to the food – with the hens understanding that reference.
From Salon ● May 30, 2022
The clucks from children coaxing donkeys carrying loads of coal down the mountain.
From New York Times ● Mar. 29, 2022
With loud, pleased clucks, the chicken shook her feathers, moved the egg with her beak, then proudly strutted her way out of the henhouse.
From "My Life with the Chimpanzees" by Jane Goodall
“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
“I gestured and clucked like a chicken,” she says — a request for spices used to prepare chicken.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 22, 2022
His pet hen, a White Leghorn, clucked with excitement every time the swatter came down.
From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns
I remember the clucking when Mr. Cook took over as CEO in 2011.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 3, 2026
"He didn't let US government clucking and handwringing stop him," says Robert Carlin.
From BBC ● Jan. 10, 2025
Even a peep of news about a new flu pandemic is enough to set scientists clucking about eggs.
From Salon ● Jun. 1, 2024
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
“Why would I want to wait around till five-thirty?” she answered, making a clucking sound with her tongue.
From "Auggie & Me" by R. J. Palacio
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