cluck

/klʌk/

Thân thiện

A hen clucks to gather her chicks in the farmyard.

Definition

1. Noun:

   • The characteristic short, low-pitched sound made by a hen, especially when calling her chicks or when content.

2. Verb:

   • To make the characteristic short, low-pitched sound of a hen.
   • (Figuratively, of a person) To express concern, disapproval, or sympathy by making a similar tutting sound with the tongue.

Examples

• Noun:

  • The hen's gentle cluck could be heard from the coop.
  • We listened to the soothing cluck of the chickens in the yard.

• Verb:

  • The mother hen will cluck to gather her chicks.
  • She clucked disapprovingly when she saw the messy room. (Figurative use)

Advanced Usage

• "to cluck over someone/something": To express fussy concern, worry, or doting affection, often with sounds or words.
  • The grandmother clucked over her grandson, straightening his clothes.
• "cluck-cluck": A reduplication sometimes used to represent the sound or to express mild reprimand.
  • "Cluck-cluck," she said, shaking her head at the spilled milk.

Variants and Related Words

• Clucking (n/adj): The action or sound of making a cluck; producing such sounds.
  • The constant clucking was a peaceful background noise.
• Clucker (n, informal): A chicken; a hen.
  • The farm has a dozen cluckers.

Synonyms

• Noun: clucking, cackle (though a 'cackle' is often louder and associated with laying an egg).
• Verb: chuck, chortle (for birds); tut, tsk (for the figurative human sound of disapproval).

Related Phrases

• "to cluck one's tongue": To make a clicking or tutting sound with the tongue to show disapproval, sympathy, or annoyance.
  • He clucked his tongue at the sight of the broken window.

Related Idioms

• "Like a hen clucking over her chicks": Behaving in an overly protective, fussy, or doting manner.
  • She fussed around the team like a hen clucking over her chicks.
• "Mother hen": A person who worries over and tries to protect others excessively. This idiom is related to the behavior associated with clucking.
  • Our manager is a real mother hen, always checking if we've eaten lunch.

Học thuật

Noun

1. the sound made by a hen (as in calling her chicks)

Verb

1. make a clucking sounds, characteristic of hens

Từ đồng nghĩa

• clucking
• click
• clack