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definitions

shuck

1
[shuhk]
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SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR shuck ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a husk or pod, as the outer covering of corn, hickory nuts, chestnuts, etc.
Usually shucks. Informal. something useless or worthless: They don't care shucks about the project.
the shell of an oyster or clam.

verb (used with object)

interjection

shucks, Informal. (used as a mild exclamation of disgust or regret.)

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RELATED WORDS

shed, shell, peel, remove, husk, strip, discard, pod, ditch, jettison, worthless

Origin of shuck

1
First recorded in 1665–75; origin uncertain
Related formsshuck·er, noun

shuck

2
[shuhk]

verb (used with object) Slang.

to deceive or lie to.

Origin of shuck

2
1955–60; origin uncertain; perhaps from exclamation shucks! (see shuck1) taken as a feigned sign of rural ignorance or a sham apology
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for shuck

Contemporary Examples of shuck

Historical Examples of shuck

  • Now light a shuck back to Mobeetie an' write a report on it.

    Oh, You Tex!

    William Macleod Raine

  • “Yessir,” said Chief Multhaus, as he began to shuck his suit.

    Unwise Child

    Gordon Randall Garrett

  • He looked at Norie, moaning on the shuck tick bed, then at Jake.

  • After the shuck has been removed the double nut is found, black as ebony.

  • For smoking purposes it is also open to the same criticisms that a shuck mattress is.

    Europe Revised

    Irvin S. Cobb

British Dictionary definitions for shuck

shuck

noun

the outer covering of something, such as the husk of a grain of maize, a pea pod, or an oyster shell

verb (tr)

to remove the shucks from
informal, mainly US and Canadian to throw off or remove (clothes, etc)
Derived Formsshucker, noun

Word Origin for shuck

C17: American dialect, of unknown origin
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 shuck
v.

"to remove the shucks from," 1819, from or related to shuck (n.). Related: Shucked; shucking.

Many extended senses are from the notion of "stripping" an ear of corn, or from the capers associated with husking frolics; e.g. "to strip (off) one's clothes" (1848) and "to deceive, swindle, cheat, fool" (1959); phrase shucking and jiving "fooling, deceiving" is suggested from 1966, in U.S. black English, but cf. shuck (v.) a slang term among "cool musicians" for "to improvise chords, especially to a piece of music one does not know" (1957), and shuck (n.) "a theft or fraud," in use by 1950s among U.S. blacks.

[B]lack senses probably fr[om] the fact that black slaves sang and shouted gleefully during corn-shucking season, and this behavior, along with lying and teasing, became a part of the protective and evasive behavior normally adopted towards white people in "traditional" race relations; the sense of "swindle" is perhaps related to the mid-1800s term to be shucked out, "be defeated, be denied victory," which suggests that the notion of stripping someone as an ear of corn is stripped may be basic in the semantics. ["Dictionary of American Slang"]
n.

"husk, pod, shell," 1670s, of unknown origin. Cf. shuck (v.). Later used in reference to the shells of oysters and clams (1872). Figurative as a type of something worthless from 1836.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper