cluck

Meaning

Noun

1. The sound made by a hen, especially when brooding, or calling her chicks.
2. Any sound similar to this.
3. A kind of tongue click used to urge on a horse.
4. (Texas) A setting hen.

Verb

1. (intransitive) To make low clicking sounds (refers to hens).
2. (transitive) To cause (the tongue) to make a clicking sound.
3. To call together, or call to follow, as a hen does her chickens.
4. (British) To suffer withdrawal from heroin.

Synonyms

cackle

chuck

clack

click

clucking

gabble

chuckle

squawk

drum

🥁

cackling

gaggle

high-hat

smack

keep on clucking

ribbonfish

cubbyu

donkey fish

move up one’s tongue

crow

Translations

glousser

gackern

cacarear

cloquear

glucken

cloqueo

κακαρίζω

kakelen

locken

klokken

cacarejar

cloquejar

caqueter

gıdaklamak

Pronounced as (IPA)

/klʌk/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: clokken

Inherited from Old English: cloccian

Cognate with Scots: clok

Cognate with Dutch: klokken

Cognate with Low German: klucken

Cognate with German: glucken

Cognate with Danish: klukke

Cognate with Swedish: klucka

Cognate with Icelandic: klökkva

In summary

From Middle English clokken, clocken, from Old English cloccian (“to cluck, make a noise”), from Proto-West Germanic *klukkwōn, from Proto-Germanic *klukkwōną (“to make a sound, cluck”), of imitative origin.
Cognate with Scots clok, clock (“to cluck”), Dutch klokken (“to cluck”), Low German klucken (“to cluck”), German glucken (“to cluck”), Danish klukke (“to cluck”), Swedish klucka (“to cluck”), Icelandic klökkva (“to sob, whine, cluck”).