cluck

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the sound made by a hen, as in calling her chicks

   The hen's cluck signaled their chicks to fall in line.

2. 2
   verb

   to make a clucking sounds, characteristic of hens

   I woke up when the hen clucked.

3. 3
   verb

   To make low clicking sounds (refers to hens).

   "I came across him once," he continued, "when he was playing down on the main road to Skaug; there he sat in the middle of the road with a lot of hens around him, I counted seven, and there were more round about in the wood, for I heard them clucking and calling behind every bush.".

4. 4
   verb

   To cause (the tongue) to make a clicking sound.

   My mother clucked her tongue in disapproval.

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”).

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