cackle

plural cackles

1. countableuncountableThe cry of a hen or goose, especially when laying an egg.

   I heard a grey hen cackling among the ling; I called and thought, "If I could get a sight of you now, it would be your last cackle;" just then I heard something moving behind me on the path.

   1886, Peter Christen Asbjø￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 28

2. countableuncountableA laugh resembling the cry of a hen or goose.
3. countableuncountableFutile or excessively noisy talk.

   There's no time to waste on silly cackle.

   1930, Frank Richards, The Magnet: All Quiet on the Greyfriars Front

4. collectivecountableuncountableA group of hyenas.

   Her mother's personal assistant -- the youngest hyena in the cackle

   2019, C. S. E. Cooney, Desdemona and the Deep, Tordotcom

   3 more examples

   A cackle of hyenas might take on one male lion, but two is one too many.

   2021, Brent Henderson, The Roar Within: Unleashing the Powerful Truth of Who You Really Are, Baker Publishing Group

   A single male lion facing a cackle of hyenas may feel dominant enough to choose to fight them.

   2025, Tom Dillon, Agile Resilience: The Psychology of Developing Resilience in the Workplace, Taylor & Francis

   A cackle of hyenas had her surrounded, enticed by the smell of her just-given birth.

   2004, Gregory Townes, The Tribe, Black Print Pub., page 6

present singular third person cackles · participle present cackling · participle past cackled · past cackled

1. intransitiveTo make a sharp, broken noise or cry, as a hen or goose does.

   When every goose is cackling.

   c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]

   1 more example

   I heard a grey hen cackling among the ling; I called and thought, "If I could get a sight of you now, it would be your last cackle;" just then I heard something moving behind me on the path.

   1886, Peter Christen Asbjø￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 28

2. intransitiveTo laugh with a broken sound similar to a hen's cry.

   The witch cackled evilly.

   1 more example

   She was a fat, round little woman, richly apparelled in velvet and lace, […]; and the way she laughed, cackling like a hen, the way she talked to the waiters and the maid,[…]—all these unexpected phenomena impelled one to hysterical mirth, and made one class her with such immortally ludicrous types as Ally Sloper, the Widow Twankey, or Miss Moucher.

   1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

3. intransitiveTo talk in a silly manner; to prattle.

   It is also the business of a sensible government, not to cackle on its discoveries

   1860, P. Thomspon, Audi Alteration[???]

4. slangtransitivegamblingTo pretend to rattle (dice) in one's hand while gripping them so that they maintain their orientation.

   Danny cackled the dice furiously in his cupped hand, then rolled them so they stopped inches from Slattery's hands. The result was the same as before – a seven.

   1941, Mignon Good Eberhart, The Third Mystery Book: Six Short Mysteries, page 120

   1 more example

   […] they spun all right, or so it seemed, and hit the wall all right, or so it seemed, but bottom line was this: The stirring of the dice was merely cackling, the cubes artfully framed so that the spots in the kid's fists showed 4‐4 up‐right and weren't really rattled but rather, held in control by the pinky, forefinger and thumb; […]

   2015, Jack Engelhard, The Prince of Dice, page 11