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.

---

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.

---

cluck British  

/ klʌk /

noun

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

---

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 cluck¹

1900–05, special use of cluck ¹

Example Sentences

The baroness clucked her tongue in mock sympathy.

From Literature

Then he chuckled and clucked the horse to a lazy walk.

From Literature

“The difference is the facts,” Mr. Smith clucked.

From The Wall Street Journal

“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

Even a peep of news about a new flu pandemic is enough to set scientists clucking about eggs.

From Salon

Related Words

• coo