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duck definition

Overview

This page has 28 definitions of duck in English, German, and Middle English. Duck is a verb and noun. Examples of how to use duck in a sentence are shown. Also define these 0 related words and terms: .

See also: Duck

English duck definition

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From Middle English *dukken, from Old English *ducan, *duccan (“to duck”); a secondary verb akin to Middle English duken, douken (“to duck, plunge under water, submerge”), from Old English *dūcan (“to dip, dive, duck”), from Proto-West Germanic *dūkan, from Proto-Germanic *dūkaną (“to dip, dive, bend down, stoop, duck”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewb- (“deep, hollow”) (whence Proto-Germanic *dūbaną (“to dive”)).

Cognates
Related to Scots dulk (“to duck”), Middle Dutch ducken (“to duck”), Low German ducken (“to duck”), German ducken (“to duck”), Danish dukke, dykke (“to dive”). Related also to Scots dook, douk (“to bathe, drench, soak, baptise”), West Frisian dûke (“to plunge, dive”), Dutch duiken (“to dive, plunge, duck”), Low German duken (“to duck, dive, stoop”), German tauchen (“to dive, plunge, immerse, duck”), Swedish dyka (“to dive, submerge”).

Verb

duck (third-person singular simple present ducks, present participle ducking, simple past and past participle ducked)

  1. (intransitive) To quickly lower the head or body, often in order to prevent it from being struck by something.
    Duck! There's a branch falling off the tree!
  2. (transitive) To quickly lower (the head or body), often in order to prevent it from being struck by something.
    • c. 1729, Jonathan Swift, To Dr. Delany on the Libels Written Against Him:
      As some raw youth in country bred,
      To arms by thirst of honour led,
      When at a skirmish first he hears
      The bullets whistling round his ears,
      Will duck his head aside
    • 1989, Grant Naylor, Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers:
      Rimmer ducked his body low into his chair, so just his head remained above the table top, and peered past the backs of the examinees in front of him, waiting for the adjudicator to make his move.
  3. (transitive) To lower (something) into water; to thrust or plunge under liquid and suddenly withdraw.
  4. (intransitive) To go under the surface of water and immediately reappear; to plunge one's head into water or other liquid.
  5. (intransitive) To bow.
  6. (transitive) To evade doing something.
    • 2018 July 21, Kathryn Hughes, “The strange cult of Emily Brontë and the 'hot mess' of Wuthering Heights”, in The Guardian‎[1]:
      Victorian women choosing to duck the demands of domestic life to spend their time doing something they enjoyed is hardly a novel idea.
    • 2023 July 12, Mel Holley, “Network News: RDG presses ahead with ticket office closure plan”, in RAIL, number 987, page 7:
      But pressed by Labour's Marsha de Cordov in the House of Commons on June 29, on "whether he plans to reduce the total number of ticket offices", Merriman ducked the question but confirmed that the Government wants to close ticket offices.
  7. (transitive) To lower the volume of (a sound) so that other sounds in the mix can be heard more clearly.
    • 2007, Alexander U. Case, Sound FX: unlocking the creative potential of recording studio effects, page 183:
      The music is ducked under the voice.
  8. (intransitive) To enter a place for a short moment.
    I'm just going to duck into the loo for a minute, can you hold my bag?
Synonyms
  • (to lower the head): duck down
  • (to lower into the water): dip, dunk
  • (to lower in order to prevent it from being struck by something): dip
Coordinate terms
  • (to lower the head or body to prevent it from being struck): hit the deck
Derived terms
Translations
to quickly lower the head or body (intransitive)

Noun

duck (plural ducks)

  1. (caving) A cave passage containing water with low, or no, airspace.
Mallard duck male
Mallard duck female

Etymology 2

From Middle English doke, ducke, dukke, dokke, douke, duke, from Old English duce, dūce (“duck”, literally “dipper, diver, ducker”), from Old English *dūcan (“to dip, dive, duck”), from Proto-West Germanic *dūkan, from Proto-Germanic *dūkaną (“to dive, bend down”). See verb above.

Cognates
Cognate with Scots duik, duke, dook (“duck”), Danish dukand, dykand (“sea-duck”), Swedish dykfågel (“a diver, diving bird, plungeon”), Middle Dutch duycker (“diver”), Low German düker (“diver”).

Alternative forms

Noun

duck (countable and uncountable, plural ducks or duck)

  1. An aquatic bird of the family Anatidae, having a flat bill and webbed feet.
  2. Specifically, an adult female duck; contrasted with drake and with duckling.
  3. (uncountable) The flesh of a duck used as food.
  4. (cricket) A batsman's score of zero after getting out. (short for duck's egg, since the digit "0" is round like an egg.)
  5. (slang) A playing card with the rank of two.
  6. A building intentionally constructed in the shape of an everyday object to which it is related.
    A luncheonette in the shape of a coffee cup is particularly conspicuous, as is intended of an architectural duck or folly.
    • 2007 February 21, Cynthia Blair, “It Happened on Long Island: 1988—Suffolk County Adopts the Big Duck”, in Newsday:
      The Big Duck has influenced the world of architecture; any building that is shaped like its product is called a ‘duck’.
  7. A marble to be shot at with another marble (the shooter) in children's games.
  8. (US) A cairn used to mark a trail.
  9. One of the weights used to hold a spline in place for the purpose of drawing a curve.
  10. (finance, slang, dated) Synonym of lame duck (“one who cannot fulfil their contracts”)
  11. (medicine) A long-necked medical urinal for men; a bed urinal.
  12. (UK, slang, obsolete) A faggot; a meatball made from offal.
Derived terms
terms derived from duck
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Dictionary:Entry layout § Translations.

See also

References

Etymology 3

From Dutch doek, from Middle Dutch doeck, doec (“linen cloth”), from Old Dutch *dōc, from Proto-West Germanic *dōk, from Proto-Germanic *dōkaz (“cloth, rag”), from Proto-Indo-European *dwōg-, *dwōk-. Cognate with German Tuch (“cloth”), Swedish duk (“cloth, canvas”), Icelandic dúkur (“cloth, fabric”). Doublet of doek.

Alternative forms

Noun

duck (countable and uncountable, plural ducks)

  2. A tightly-woven cotton fabric used as sailcloth.
    • 1912, Katherine Mansfield, “The Woman At The Store”, in Selected Short Stories:
      He was dressed in a Jaeger vest—a pair of blue duck trousers, fastened round the waist with a plaited leather belt.
  3. (in the plural) Trousers made of such material.
    • 1918 March, Rebecca West [pseudonym; Cicily Isabel Fairfield], chapter III, in The Return of the Soldier, 1st US edition, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC, pages 67–68:
      And they would go up and find old Allington, in white ducks, standing in the fringe of long grasses and cow-parsley on the other edge of the island, looking to his poultry or his rabbits.
    • 1954, Doris Lessing, A Proper Marriage, HarperPerennial, published 1995, page 74:
      A native servant emerged, anonymous in his white ducks and red fez, to say My Player was wanted on the telephone.
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations

Etymology 4

Potteries dialect, Black Country dialect and dialects of the former territory of Mercia (central England). Compare Danish dukke (“doll”), Swedish docka (“baby; doll”), dialectal English doxy (“sweetheart”).

Noun

duck (plural ducks)

  1. A term of endearment; pet; darling.
  2. (Midlands) Dear, mate (informal way of addressing a friend or stranger).
    Ay up duck, ow'a'tha?
Synonyms
Derived terms

References

  • “duck”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
  • Birks, Steve (2005-01-26), “The history of the Potteries dialect”, in BBC‎[2], retrieved 2014-11-19

German duck definition

Pronunciation

Verb

duck

  1. singular imperative of ducken

Middle English duck definition

Noun

duck

  1. Alternative form of duk (“duke”)
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