cluck one's tongue

present singular third person clucks one's tongue · participle present clucking one's tongue · participle past clucked one's tongue · past clucked one's tongue

1. To click one's tongue.

   “To think a man like Mr. Tucker would do something like that!”" She went out, clucking her tongue in exaggerated dismay.

   1958, Raymond F. Jones, chapter 9, in The Year When Stardust Fell, Philadelphia: John C. Winston

   3 more examples

   The spring had got into his blood, too; he felt the need for letting steam escape, and clucked his tongue, flourishing his whip, wheeling his horses […]

   1906, John Galsworthy, The Forsyte Saga, Volume I, Chapter

   I went out and had a chat with the foreman of the men; he clucked his tongue when he heard what had happened, and opined that I was lucky to have come off so lightly with nobody there to help me out of the machine.

   1926, Nevil Shute, chapter 1, in Marazan

   “But newspapers have a duty to truth,” Van said. Lev clucked his tongue. “They tell the truth only as the exception. […]”

   2009, Barbara Kingsolver, The Lacuna, New York: HarperCollins, Part 3, p. 236