cuckoo's egg

noun

Anything harmful that is infiltrated into a place in order to develop and emerge there.

Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

noun
  1. Anything harmful that is infiltrated into a place in order to develop and emerge there.

Origin

In reference to the habit of the cuckoo of depositing its egg into another bird's nest to be incubated and fed.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

cuckoo's egg. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cuckoo's%20egg

MLA

“cuckoo's egg.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cuckoo's%20egg. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “cuckoo's egg,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cuckoo's%20egg.

Source: cuckoo's egg on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.