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quack

noun
/kwæk/

Etymology

From Middle English *quacken, queken (“to croak like a frog; make a noise like a duck, goose, or quail”), from quack, qwacke, quek, queke (“quack”, interjection and noun), also kek, keke, whec-, partly of imitative origin and partly from Middle Dutch quacken (“to croak, quack”), from Old Dutch *kwaken (“to croak, quack”), from Proto-West Germanic *kwakōn, from Proto-Germanic *kwakaną, *kwakōną (“to croak”), of imitative origin. Cognate with Saterland Frisian kwoakje, kwaakje (“to quack”), Middle Low German quaken (“to quack, croak”), German quaken (“to quack, croak”), Danish kvække (“to croak”), Swedish kväka (“to croak, quackle”), Norwegian kvekke (“to croak”), Icelandic kvaka (“to twitter, chirp, quack”).

  1. derived from *kwakaną✻
  2. derived from *kwakōn✻
  3. derived from *kwaken✻ — “to croak, quack”
  4. derived from quacken — “to croak, quack”
  5. inherited from *quacken✻

Definitions

  1. The vocalisation made by a duck.

    • Did you hear that duck make a quack?

  2. Of a duck, to make its characteristic vocalisation.

    • The more breadcrumbs I threw on the ground, the more they quacked.
    • Do you hear the ducks quack?

  3. To make a sound similar to the quack of a duck.

  4. ›+ 8 more definitions

    1. Of a queen bee

      Of a queen bee: to make a high-pitched sound during certain stages of development.

    2. A duck's quack.

    3. A fraudulent healer, especially a bombastic peddler in worthless treatments, a doctor who…

      A fraudulent healer, especially a bombastic peddler in worthless treatments, a doctor who makes false diagnoses for monetary benefit, or an untrained or poorly trained doctor who uses fraudulent credentials to attract patients

      • That doctor is nothing but a lousy quack!
      • 1662, Rump: or an Exact Collection of the Choycest Poems and Songs Relating to Late Times, Vol. II, by ‘the most Eminent Wits’ Tis hard to say, how much these Arse-wormes do urge us, We now need no Quack but these Jacks for to purge us, …
      • After ſome Months, the Quack gets privately to Town, [...]

    4. Any similar charlatan or incompetent professional.

      • The very quaik of faſhions, the very hee that / VVeares a Steletto on his chinne.

    5. Any doctor.

      • That quack wants me to quit smoking, eat less, and start exercising. The nerve!

    6. To practice or commit quackery (fraudulent medicine).

    7. To make vain and loud pretensions.

      • Seek out for Plants with Signatures To Quack of Universal Cures

    8. Falsely presented as having medicinal powers.

      • Don't get your hopes up; that's quack medicine!
      • In precisely the same way does a quack doctor prescribe his infallible nostrum to every patient, without taking into account differences of constitution, or [...]

The neighborhood

Derived

quacker, quackle, quackless, quack like a duck, quacky, quackademic, quackbuster, quackbusting, quackcinated, quackery, quackhood, quackish, quackism, quacklike, quackster, quacktitioner

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for quack. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA