clack

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   An abrupt, sharp sound, especially one made by two hard objects colliding repetitively

   An abrupt, sharp sound, especially one made by two hard objects colliding repetitively; a sound midway between a click and a clunk.

2. 2

   Anything that causes a clacking noise, such as the clapper of a mill, or a clack valve.

3. 3

   Chatter

   Chatter; prattle.

   • whose chief intent is to vaunt his spiritual clack
4. ›+ 7 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      The tongue.

   2. 5

      To make a sudden, sharp noise, or succession of noises

      To make a sudden, sharp noise, or succession of noises; to click.

      • We heard Mr. Hodson's whip clacking on the shoulders of the poor little wretches.
      • [He] walked quite jauntily across the courtyard to the distant door, his sandals clacking against the marble.
   3. 6

      To cause to make a sudden, sharp noise, or succession of noises

      To cause to make a sudden, sharp noise, or succession of noises; to click.

   4. 7

      To chatter or babble

      To chatter or babble; to utter rapidly without consideration.

      • There is a generation of men, whose unweighed custome makes them clack out any thing their heedleſs fancy ſprings
      • The women bunched up in little droves and let their tongues clack, and the men herded together and passed a jug around and, to tell the truth, let their tongues clack too.
   5. 8

      To cut the sheep's mark off (wool), to make the wool weigh less and thus yield less duty.

   6. 9

      Dated form of cluck.

      • Only the chickens clacked at the Saturday quiet and fat mouse-minded cats licked whiskers on the empty steps.
      • We drive on between meadows of mown grass, through a pergola of vines, and so to an orchard of peaches, apples, and pears and a hen colony housed in neat modern cottages, the chickens clacking and scratching away […]
   7. 10

      A surname.

The neighborhood