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Duck   /dək/   Listen
noun
Duck  n.  A pet; a darling.


Duck  n.  
1.
A linen (or sometimes cotton) fabric, finer and lighter than canvas, used for the lighter sails of vessels, the sacking of beds, and sometimes for men's clothing.
2.
(Naut.) pl. The light clothes worn by sailors in hot climates. (Colloq.)


Duck  n.  
1.
(Zool.) Any bird of the subfamily Anatinae, family Anatidae. Note: The genera and species are numerous. They are divided into river ducks and sea ducks. Among the former are the common domestic duck (Anas boschas); the wood duck (Aix sponsa); the beautiful mandarin duck of China (Dendronessa galeriliculata); the Muscovy duck, originally of South America (Cairina moschata). Among the sea ducks are the eider, canvasback, scoter, etc.
2.
A sudden inclination of the bead or dropping of the person, resembling the motion of a duck in water. "Here be, without duck or nod, Other trippings to be trod."
Bombay duck (Zool.), a fish. See Bummalo.
Buffel duck, Spirit duck. See Buffel duck.
Duck ant (Zool.), a species of white ant in Jamaica which builds large nests in trees.
Duck barnacle. (Zool.) See Goose barnacle.
Duck hawk. (Zool.)
(a)
In the United States: The peregrine falcon.
(b)
In England: The marsh harrier or moor buzzard.
Duck mole (Zool.), a small aquatic mammal of Australia, having webbed feet and a bill resembling that of a duck (Ornithorhynchus anatinus). It belongs the subclass Monotremata and is remarkable for laying eggs like a bird or reptile; called also duckbill, platypus, mallangong, mullingong, tambreet, and water mole.
To make ducks and drakes, to throw a flat stone obliquely, so as to make it rebound repeatedly from the surface of the water, raising a succession of jets; hence:
To play at ducks and drakes, with property, to throw it away heedlessly or squander it foolishly and unprofitably.
Lame duck. See under Lame.


verb
Duck  v. t.  (past & past part. ducked; pres. part. ducking)  
1.
To thrust or plunge under water or other liquid and suddenly withdraw. "Adams, after ducking the squire twice or thrice, leaped out of the tub."
2.
To plunge the head of under water, immediately withdrawing it; as, duck the boy.
3.
To bow; to bob down; to move quickly with a downward motion. " Will duck his head aside."


Duck  v. i.  
1.
To go under the surface of water and immediately reappear; to dive; to plunge the head in water or other liquid; to dip. "In Tiber ducking thrice by break of day."
2.
To drop the head or person suddenly; to bow. "The learned pate Ducks to the golden fool."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Duck" Quotes from Famous Books



... the advent of this foreign arrival from sea:—"A lonely ship sailed up the St. Lawrence. The white whales floundering in the Bay of Tadousac, and the wild duck diving as the foaming prow drew near,—there was no life but these in all that watery solitude, twenty miles from shore to shore. The ship was from Honfleur, and was commanded by Samuel de Champlain. He was the Aeneas of a destined people, and in her womb lay the embryo life of Canada." ...
— Picturesque Quebec • James MacPherson Le Moine
... to mark a scene so fair, And treat their steeds with mountain air, Some rode apart, or led before, Rock after rock the wheels upbore; The careful driver slowly sped, To many a bough we duck'd the head, And heard the wild inviting calls Of summer's tinkling waterfalls, In wooded glens below; and still, At every step the sister hill, BLORENGE, grew greater, half unseen At times from out our bowers of green. That telescopic landscapes ...
— The Banks of Wye • Robert Bloomfield
... concert of pigeon murmuring, duck diplomacy, fowl foraging, foal whinnering—the word wants an r in it—and all the noises of rural life. The sun was shining into the room by a window far off at the further end, bringing with him strange sylvan shadows, not at once to be interpreted. He must have ...
— The Marquis of Lossie • George MacDonald
... short legs, web feet, extremely long—pointed wings, and is about the size of a tern. The beak is flattened laterally, that is, in a plane at right angles to that of a spoonbill or duck. It is as flat and elastic as an ivory paper-cutter, and the lower mandible, differently from every other bird, is an inch and a half longer than the upper. In a lake near Maldonado, from which the water had been nearly drained, and which, in consequence, swarmed ...
— A Book of Natural History - Young Folks' Library Volume XIV. • Various
... come back, Mary.—I see, my man, when you take a bribe, you are scrupulous enough to do your work for it; for which, I hope, somebody may duck you with one hand, and rub you dry with the other. Kindness and honesty, for kindness and honesty's sake, is the true coin; but many a one, like you, is content to be a passable Birmingham halfpenny. [Exeunt JOB ...
— John Bull - The Englishman's Fireside: A Comedy, in Five Acts • George Colman


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