cluck

Meanings

Noun

• The sound made by a hen, especially when brooding, or calling her chicks.
• Any sound similar to this.
• A kind of tongue click used to urge on a horse.

Verb

• To make such a sound.
• To cause (the tongue) to make a clicking sound.
• To call together, or call to follow, as a hen does her chickens.
• to suffer withdrawal from heroin.

Origin

• From Middle English clokken, clocken, from Old English cloccian ("to cluck, make a noise"), from Proto-Germanic *klukkwōną ("to make a sound, cluck"), of imitative origin. Cognate with Scots clok, clock, 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").