English
duck
Pronunciation Verb

duck (ducks, present participle ducking; past and past participle ducked)

  1. (intransitive) To quickly lower the head or body in order to prevent it from being struck by something.
  2. (transitive) To quickly lower (the head) in order to prevent it from being struck by something.
  3. (transitive) To lower (something) into water; to thrust or plunge under liquid and suddenly withdraw.
    • Adams, after ducking the squire twice or thrice, leaped out of the tub.
  4. (intransitive) To go under the surface of water and immediately reappear; to plunge one's head into water or other liquid.
    • In Tiber ducking thrice by break of day.
  5. (intransitive) To bow.
    • c. 1605–1608, William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens
      The learned pate / Ducks to the golden fool.
  6. (transitive) To evade doing something.
  7. (transitive) To lower the volume of (a sound) so that other sounds in the mix can be heard more clearly.
  8. (intransitive) To enter a place for a short moment.
    I'm just going to duck into the loo for a minute, can you hold my bag?
Synonyms
  • (to lower the head) duck down
  • (to lower into the water) dip, dunk
  • (to lower in order to prevent it from being struck by something) dip
Translations
  • French: esquiver
  • German: sich ducken, sich schnell bücken
  • Portuguese: agachar-se, abaixar-se
  • Russian: пригиба́ться
  • Spanish: agachar, esconder
Translations Translations Translations Noun

duck

  1. An aquatic bird of the family Anatidae, having a flat bill and webbed feet.
  2. Specifically, an adult female duck; contrasted with drake and with duckling.
  3. (uncountable) The flesh of a duck used as food.
  4. (cricket) A batsman's score of zero after getting out. (short for duck's egg, since the digit "0" is round like an egg.)
  5. (slang) A playing card with the rank of two.
  6. A partly-flooded cave passage with limited air space.
  7. A building intentionally constructed in the shape of an everyday object to which it is related.
    A luncheonette in the shape of a coffee cup is particularly conspicuous, as is intended of an architectural duck or folly.
    • 2007, Cynthia Blair, "It Happened on Long Island: 1988—Suffolk County Adopts the Big Duck," Newsday, 21 Feb.:
      The Big Duck has influenced the world of architecture; any building that is shaped like its product is called a ‘duck’.
  8. A marble to be shot at with another marble (the shooter) in children's games.
  9. (US) A cairn used to mark a trail.
  10. One of the weights used to hold a spline in place for the purpose of drawing a curve.
  11. (finance, slang, dated) Synonym of lame duck#English|lame duck (“one who cannot fulfil their contracts”)
  12. (medicine) A long-necked medical urinal for men.
Translations Translations
  • French: cane, canard femelle
  • German: Ente, Entenweibchen, weibliche Ente
  • Portuguese: pata
  • Russian: у́тка
  • Spanish: pata
Translations Translations
  • Russian: нуль
  • Spanish: cero
Translations
  • Russian: дво́йка
Noun

duck (plural ducks)

  1. A tightly-woven cotton fabric used as sailcloth.
    • 1912, Katherine Mansfield, "The Woman At The Store", from Selected Short Stories:
      He was dressed in a Jaeger vest—a pair of blue duck trousers, fastened round the waist with a plaited leather belt.
  2. (in plural) Trousers made of such material.
    • 1918, Rebecca West, The Return of the Soldier, Virago 2014, page 56:
      And they would go up and find old Allington, in white ducks, standing in the fringe of long grasses and cow-parsley on the other edge of the island […].
    • 1954, Doris Lessing, A Proper Marriage, HarperPerennial 1995, p. 74:
      A native servant emerged, anonymous in his white ducks and red fez, to say My Player was wanted on the telephone.
Translations
  • Italian: olona
  • Russian: паруси́на
Noun

duck (plural ducks)

  1. A term of endearment; pet; darling.
    And hold-fast is the only dog, my duck (William Shakespeare - The Life of King Henry the Fifth, Act 2, Scene 3).
  2. (Midlands) Dear, mate (informal way of addressing a friend or stranger).
    Ay up duck, ow'a'tha?
Synonyms
Duck
Pronunciation Proper noun
  1. Surname
  2. A town in North Carolina.
  3. An unincorporated community in West Virginia.


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