cluck

plural clucks · alternative dialectal clutch · alternative clock

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. TexasA setting hen.

present singular third person clucks · participle present clucking · participle past clucked · past clucked · alternative dialectal clutch · alternative clock

1. intransitiveTo 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."

   1886, Peter Christen Asbjø￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 72

   Synonyms: chuck

2. transitiveTo cause (the tongue) to make a clicking sound.

   My mother clucked her tongue in disapproval.

3. To call together, or call to follow, as a hen does her chickens.

   When she, poor hen, fond of no second brood, Has clucked thee to the wars and safely home.

   c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]

4. UKdrug slangTo suffer withdrawal from heroin.

plural Clucks

1. A surname.