Meanings
plural cuckooings
- countableuncountableThe call of a cuckoo.
[…] the mistaken idea that wagtails and hedge-warblers feed the young cuckoos they bring up, long after they leave the nest, whenever they hear their cuckooing, […]
1882, The Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal - UKcountableuncountableA form of crime in which the home of a vulnerable person is taken over by a criminal gang and used as a base for their activities.
The specified criminal activity includes the types of criminal activity that cuckooing is typically used to facilitate, for example, drugs offences, sexual offences and offensive weapons offences.
2025 February 25, “Crime and Policing Bill: Child criminal exploitation and 'cuckooing' factsheet”, in Home Office, Ministry of Justice (United Kingdom)
- gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of cuckoo
Origin
The UK sense is by analogy from the bird's practice of brood parasitism.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Finnish kukunta
- kukuntacall of a cuckoo
Cite this entry
cuckooing. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cuckooing
“cuckooing.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cuckooing. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “cuckooing,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cuckooing.
Source: cuckooing on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.