mallard

[mal-erd]

noun, plural mal·lards, (especially collectively) mal·lard.

a common, almost cosmopolitan, wild duck, Anas platyrhynchos, from which the domestic ducks are descended.

Origin of mallard

1275–1325; Middle English < Middle French, Old French mallart mallard drake, drake; see male, -ard

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for mallard

Contemporary Examples of mallard

It launches with an amusing ruse: Bond makes his entrance swimming underwater, disguised by a mallard he wears as a hat.
Best James Bond Opening Sequences: ‘Goldeneye’ & More (VIDEO)
Kevin Fallon
October 4, 2012

Historical Examples of mallard

A pair of mallard ducks were swimming about in one end of it,—the cool end.
Camping with President Roosevelt
John Burroughs
I saw this illustrated one spring in the case of a mallard drake.
The Wit of a Duck and Other Papers
John Burroughs
Then he turned appealingly to me, uttering the soft note of the mallard.
The Wit of a Duck and Other Papers
John Burroughs
Captain Mallard and the "Return" had brought her to the town, and that was all.
A Little Girl in Old Detroit
Amanda Minnie Douglas
"If we can make Barre before it storms," said Captain Mallard.
A Little Girl in Old Detroit
Amanda Minnie Douglas

British Dictionary definitions for mallard

mallard

noun plural -lard or -lards

a duck, Anas platyrhynchos, common over most of the N hemisphere, the male of which has a dark green head and reddish-brown breast: the ancestor of all domestic breeds of duck

Word Origin for mallard

C14: from Old French mallart, perhaps from maslart (unattested); see male, -ard

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for mallard

c.1300, "wild drake or duck," from Old French malart (12c.) or Medieval Latin mallardus, apparently from male, from Latin masculus (see male), in which case the original sense probably was not of a specific species but of any male wild duck, though the specific sense of "male of the wild duck" was not attested in English until early 14c.