Library / English Dictionary

DUCK

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Small wild or domesticated web-footed broad-billed swimming bird usually having a depressed body and short legs

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("duck" is a kind of...):

anseriform bird (chiefly web-footed swimming birds)

Meronyms (parts of "duck"):

duck (flesh of a duck (domestic or wild))

duck down (down of the duck)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "duck"):

Cairina moschata; muscovy duck; musk duck (large crested wild duck of Central America and South America; widely domesticated)

Aix galericulata; mandarin duck (showy crested Asiatic duck; often domesticated)

Aix sponsa; summer duck; wood duck; wood widgeon (showy North American duck that nests in hollow trees)

wild duck (an undomesticated duck (especially a mallard))

bluebill; broadbill; scaup; scaup duck (diving ducks of North America having a bluish-grey bill)

Aythya americana; redhead (North American diving duck with a grey-and-black body and reddish-brown head)

Aythya ferina; pochard (heavy-bodied Old World diving duck having a grey-and-black body and reddish head)

Aythya valisineria; canvasback; canvasback duck (North American wild duck valued for sport and food)

Bucephela clangula; goldeneye; whistler (large-headed swift-flying diving duck of Arctic regions)

Bucephela albeola; bufflehead; butterball; dipper (small North American diving duck; males have bushy head plumage)

Oxyura jamaicensis; ruddy duck (reddish-brown stiff-tailed duck of North America and northern South America)

sheldrake (Old World gooselike duck slightly larger than a mallard with variegated mostly black-and-white plumage and a red bill)

Anas acuta; pin-tailed duck; pintail (long-necked river duck of the Old and New Worlds having elongated central tail feathers)

Anas clypeata; broadbill; shoveler; shoveller (freshwater duck of the northern hemisphere having a broad flat bill)

Anas penelope; widgeon; wigeon (freshwater duck of Eurasia and northern Africa related to mallards and teals)

teal (any of various small short-necked dabbling river ducks of Europe and America)

Anas rubripes; black duck (a dusky duck of northeastern United States and Canada)

Anas platyrhynchos; mallard (wild dabbling duck from which domestic ducks are descended; widely distributed)

dabbler; dabbling duck (any of numerous shallow-water ducks that feed by upending and dabbling)

diving duck (any of various ducks of especially bays and estuaries that dive for their food)

duckling (young duck)

quack-quack (child's word for a duck)

drake (adult male of a wild or domestic duck)

sea duck (any of various large diving ducks found along the seacoast: eider; scoter; merganser)

Holonyms ("duck" is a member of...):

Anatidae; family Anatidae (swimming birds having heavy short-legged bodies and bills with a horny tip: swans; geese; ducks)

Derivation:

duckling (young duck)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A heavy cotton fabric of plain weave; used for clothing and tents

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("duck" is a kind of...):

cloth; fabric; material; textile (artifact made by weaving or felting or knitting or crocheting natural or synthetic fibers)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Flesh of a duck (domestic or wild)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Hypernyms ("duck" is a kind of...):

poultry (flesh of chickens or turkeys or ducks or geese raised for food)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "duck"):

duckling (flesh of a young domestic duck)

Holonyms ("duck" is a part of...):

duck (small wild or domesticated web-footed broad-billed swimming bird usually having a depressed body and short legs)

Derivation:

duckling (flesh of a young domestic duck)

Sense 4

Meaning:

(cricket) a score of nothing by a batsman

Synonyms:

duck; duck's egg

Classified under:

Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure

Hypernyms ("duck" is a kind of...):

score (a number that expresses the accomplishment of a team or an individual in a game or contest)

Domain category:

cricket (a game played with a ball and bat by two teams of 11 players; teams take turns trying to score runs)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Avoid or try to avoid fulfilling, answering, or performing (duties, questions, or issues)

Example:

he evaded the questions skillfully

Synonyms:

circumvent; dodge; duck; elude; evade; fudge; hedge; parry; put off; sidestep; skirt

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "duck" is one way to...):

avoid (stay clear from; keep away from; keep out of the way of someone or something)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "duck"):

beg (dodge, avoid answering, or take for granted)

quibble (evade the truth of a point or question by raising irrelevant objections)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

To move (the head or body) quickly downwards or away

Example:

Before he could duck, another stone struck him

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "duck" is one way to...):

move (move so as to change position, perform a nontranslational motion)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something

Sense 3

Meaning:

Submerge or plunge suddenly

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "duck" is one way to...):

dive; plunge; plunk (drop steeply)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something PP
Somebody ----s PP

Sentence example:

The airplane is sure to duck

Derivation:

ducking (the act of wetting something by submerging it)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Dip into a liquid

Example:

He dipped into the pool

Synonyms:

dip; douse; duck

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "duck" is one way to...):

dip; douse; dunk; plunge; souse (immerse briefly into a liquid so as to wet, coat, or saturate)

Sentence frames:

Something is ----ing PP
Somebody ----s something PP

Derivation:

ducking (the act of wetting something by submerging it)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Ducking, turning, doubling, he slid about the deck, eluding the other's efforts to capture him.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

She was going to the butcher's, she told me, on purpose to order in some meat on Wednesday, and she has got three couple of ducks just fit to be killed.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Hove to under this short canvas, our decks were comparatively free of water, while the Ghost bobbed and ducked amongst the combers like a cork.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

He soon made ducks and drakes of what I gave him, sank lower and lower, married another woman, I believe, became an adventurer, a gambler, and a cheat.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Could swim like a duck, paddled round the castle till he came to a little door guarded by two stout fellows, knocked their heads together till they cracked like a couple of nuts, then, by a trifling exertion of his prodigious strength, he smashed in the door, went up a pair of stone steps covered with dust a foot thick, toads as big as your fist, and spiders that would frighten you into hysterics, Miss March.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

As big John flung himself upon him, the archer ducked under the great red hands that clutched for him, and, catching his man round the thighs, hurled him over his shoulder—helped as much by his own mad rush as by the trained strength of the heave.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There was excellent wild-duck shooting in the fens, remarkably good fishing, a small but select library, taken over, as I understood, from a former occupant, and a tolerable cook, so that he would be a fastidious man who could not put in a pleasant month there.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I confess I don't see how we are going to get in unless that agency duck can find us a key of some sort; perhaps we shall know when you get his letter in the morning.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The duck came to them, and Hansel seated himself on its back, and told his sister to sit by him.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

We'll have favourable winds, a quick passage, and not the least difficulty in finding the spot, and money to eat, to roll in, to play duck and drake with ever after.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)