duck

CEFRA2

/dʌk/

noun · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A common water bird with a short neck.

  2. 02

    verb

    To lower your head or body quickly to avoid something.

Examples

  • Can you tell a duck from a goose?

  • It's duck soup for a girl of easy virtue to find a new man.

At a glance

Sits at A2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. To go under the surface of water and immediately reappear; to plunge one's head into water or other liquid.

  2. To lower (something) into water; to thrust or plunge under liquid and suddenly withdraw.

verb

Extra meaning

  1. To quickly lower (the head or body), often in order to prevent it from being struck by something.

More examples

In context

  • Like water off a duck's back.

  • A luncheonette in the shape of a coffee cup is particularly conspicuous, as is intended of an architectural duck or folly.

  • I'm just going to duck into the loo for a minute; can you hold my bag?

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

A mother blank led her fluffy ducklings across the pond.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

From Middle English ducken, duken, douken (“to duck, plunge under water, submerge”), from Old English *dūcan (“to dip, dive, duck”), from Proto-West Germanic *dūkan, from Proto-Germanic *dūkaną (“to dip, dive, bend down, stoop, duck”). Cognates Related to Scots dulk (“to duck”), Middle Dutch ducken (“to duck”), Low German ducken (“to duck”), German ducken (“to duck”), Danish dukke, dykke (“to dive”). Related also to Scots dook, douk (“to bathe, drench, soak, baptise”), West Frisian dûke (“to plunge, dive”), Dutch duiken (“to dive, plunge, duck”), Low German duken (“to duck, dive, stoop”), German tauchen (“to dive, plunge, immerse, duck”), Swedish dyka (“to dive, submerge”).