cuckoo

plural cuckoos

1. countableuncountableAny of various birds, of the family Cuculidae within the order Cuculiformes, famous for laying its eggs in the nests of other species; but especially a common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus), that has a characteristic two-note call.

   He knows me, as the blind man knows the cuckoo, By the bad voice.

   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

   At dawn they fly away, none knows whither. On the eve of the death of any other Tanville-Tankerton, comes (no matter what be the time of year) a cuckoo. It stays for an hour, cooing, then flies away, none knows whither. Whenever this portent occurs, my steward telegraphs to me, that I, as head of the family, be not unsteeled against the shock of a bereavement, and that my authority be sooner given for the unsealing and garnishing of the family-vault.

   1911 October 26, Max Beerbohm, Zuleika Dobson, or, An Oxford Love Story, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: John Lane Company, published 1912, →OCLC

2. countableuncountableThe sound of that particular bird.
3. countableuncountableThe bird-shaped figure found in cuckoo clocks.
4. countableuncountableThe cuckoo clock itself.
5. countableuncountableA person who inveigles themselves into a place where they should not be (used especially in the phrase a cuckoo in the nest).
6. countableslanguncountableSomeone who is crazy.
7. alternativecountableuncountableAlternative form of coo-coo (Barbadian food).
8. ManglishSinglishalternativecolloquialcountableuncountableAlternative form of ku ku jiao (the penis)

   Synonyms: cuckoo bird, ku ku bird

present singular third person cuckoos · participle present cuckooing · participle past cuckooed · past cuckooed

1. To make the call of a cuckoo.

   Switzerland is the home of many musical toys and here were carved whistles in the shapes of birds. These cuckooed realistically when blown into, with the beak opening and shutting, and the tail moving up and down to produce the 'cuck' and the 'oooh'.

   1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 174

2. To repeat something incessantly.

   Synonyms: parrot

3. UKgovernmentTo take over the home of a vulnerable person for the purposes of carrying out organized crime in a concealed way.

   She'll have been cuckooed. That'll be the Knezevics. They can't launder fast enough, so what do you do with it? Where do you put it? You hide it in somebody else's place; somebody who han't got a clue what's going on and couldn't do a fat lot about it if they did.

   2023, Sally Wainwright, 26:06 from the start, in Happy Valley, season 3, episode 2, spoken by Catherine Cawood (Sarah Lancashire)

comparative more cuckoo · superlative most cuckoo

1. slangCrazy; not sane.

   I think I'm going cuckoo!

   1 more example

   71...R/3xN†? [White] resigns?? Lengyel combined to get this cuckoo coup expecting 72 RxR BxP† to win. And Darga's mind, apparently in the same channel, also overlooked 73 K-K3.

   1964 August, “Amsterdam Interzonal”, in Chess Review

1. A locality in Dorset council area, north eastern Tasmania, Australia.