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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
duck
I.noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a duck pond
dead duck
▪ He admitted that the whole project was a dead duck.
ducking stool
ducks and drakes
lame duck
sitting duck
▪ Out in the open, the soldiers were sitting ducks for enemy fire.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
diving
▪ Pochards are the diving ducks parexcellence, diving frequently and swimming submerged.
▪ Large diving sea ducks, often breeding on fresh water but normally resorting to salt water at other times.
▪ Red-heads dive constantly like grebes, but have conspicuously whiter cheeks, and are also much whiter than other small diving ducks.
▪ Rises more steeply from water than most diving ducks, wings making a loud singing note in flight.
large
▪ The largest dabbling duck, the commonest and most widespread duck of the region, and the origin of the farmyard duck.
roast
▪ Excellent menu includes roast duck, smoked salmon, fish and game dishes.
▪ Honey-glazed roast ducks hang in doorways beside weird sea slugs and dried fish.
▪ That was why a landlord like Uncle Khan made offerings of roast ducks and steamed rice to one of his poorest tenants.
tufted
▪ We were watching the tufted ducks which made up for their late appearance this season by arriving in more than usual strength.
▪ And black and white tufted ducks tacked to-and-fro, the wind blowing their crests into stiff little top-knots.
▪ Rain sheeted down on gad wall, tufted duck, coot and mallard.
▪ Eider ducks were vying with mallard and tufted ducks, the ducklings dodging in and around people's legs.
▪ My excuse for the gap in my knowledge is that tufted ducks are rarely vocal except during the breeding period.
▪ The tufted ducks gathered into a loose raft in mid-water and eyed the intruders with disdain.
▪ I counted more than 30 tufted ducks while at least 80 mallards were making wide sweeps round the pond before resettling.
▪ Through binoculars we recognised shoveler, teal, pochard and tufted duck, all of which breed in the pools.
wild
▪ Also two wild ducks in the larder.
▪ In 1608 famed explorer Captain John Smith reported that great numbers of wild ducks abounded.
▪ But tiresome authority deems that tickling a trout or two or felling the odd wild duck for the supper table is illegal.
▪ A report had been received by his inspector that a discreet cull of the wild ducks on Hury Reservoir was under way.
■ NOUN
pond
▪ Unaccustomed peace settled on the duck pond.
▪ At weekends he is likely to be found at his stone cottage complete with Aga, stream and duck pond.
▪ What only a few weeks ago had been a car park was transformed into an ornamental duck pond.
■ VERB
break
▪ I hope Swindon don't break their duck on saturday.
▪ The Yorkshire-born jockey broke his duck at Yarmouth in 1967 and has never once doubted his ability to compete with the best.
▪ That I break his miserable china duck.
▪ Deano was obviously chuffed to break his duck.
feed
▪ I wish I had some bread - I like feeding the ducks.
▪ She poured the peanuts into her palm and fed the duck.
▪ See them laugh as they feed the ducks.
▪ Didier was happy to feed the ducks on the river and take me to visit his schoolteacher.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a dead duck
▪ If he's not here on time, he's a dead duck.
▪ The news program was once considered a dead duck.
lame duck president/governor/legislature etc
like water off a duck's back
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ roast duck
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ He went to the brook, and shot a little duck, Right through the middle of the head, head, head.
▪ In the moonlight it appeared more like a great slab of concrete than a refuge for ducks.
▪ Most commercial ducks now come from farms in Northern California or the Midwest states, especially Indiana.
▪ The particular larva around which a mussel pearl forms lives in its adult stage in the eider duck.
▪ When removing the legs from the duck, make sure to leave enough skin around them to cover the meat.
II.verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
back
▪ He let go and ducked back into the driving rain.
▪ I eased into an upright position, ducking back out of sight until I heard him start the car and pull away.
▪ Art, it seems, is the perpetual recidivist, always ducking back into the aesthetic as soon as vigilant life averts its gaze.
▪ Marion ducked back out, surprised and annoyed, but there was no sign of her.
▪ He ducked back into the shadows, his face pressed to the door.
▪ Instinctively, I ducked back a tree or two.
down
▪ I ducked down and left the doorway and ran along a row of cars to where mine was.
▪ Others just plunged, simply ducked down and pushed out, fighting up, reaching for air.
▪ As Taff and I ducked down into the trench I upset the remains of my meal over the floor.
▪ Kramer had to duck down to get to the toilet.
▪ He grabbed Vanessa, ducked down behind her.
▪ We ducked down by the vines, heaving tomatoes at each other.
▪ He dived behind a storage tank, covering as Forster dropped lightly to his feet and ducked down beside a bench.
▪ She was hundreds of yards from the cottage when she ducked down, panting.
out
▪ It took all the strength of Perdita's frantically squeezing legs to stop her ducking out.
▪ At one point, Blue thinks that he is looking directly at him and ducks out of the way.
▪ However much he might like to duck out, he can not.
▪ Sinnett clamped his hand over his mouth and ducked out.
▪ This boy was more the Weakest Link as he ducked out of taking two decisions to deny Leeds the win they deserved.
▪ Several of us ducked out under cover of darkness, even as others arrived.
▪ I know when to duck out for a breather.
▪ Although Dole was ducking out, the debate will go on as scheduled.
■ NOUN
cover
▪ Jehan rode up beside it, stepped out of the saddle, and ducked inside the cover.
▪ Several of us ducked out under cover of darkness, even as others arrived.
▪ Democrats either ducked for cover or scrambled to put the focus back on Gingrich.
▪ She said that as she ducked for cover, she saw Combs run for the exit with Lopez.
head
▪ Whenever the question of whether or not she needed him popped into her head, Constance conveniently ducked it.
▪ Quickly, head low, he ducked behind the hedge and walked in a crouch to the bushes.
issue
▪ Don't duck the issues that death raises.
▪ The protest movement can not duck the issue of the minority of violent anarchists who now exploit it.
▪ Remember, the one thing you can't do is duck the issue.
▪ Since the war, governments had by and large ducked the issue.
question
▪ He did not duck one question.
▪ Regardless whether you agree with him, he never ducks a question and always seems to have a grasp of the subject.
■ VERB
try
▪ I tried ducking under broken sections, but they just ducked right down after me.
▪ Smitty caught it flat-footed; he had not even tried to duck.
▪ She tried to duck out of his grip, half-succeeding, and he went off-balance.
▪ Floyd tried to duck out of the booth, but it was too late; he had already been spotted.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ I forgot to duck and hit my head on the branch.
▪ It was a good thing that I ducked when the wind blew the sail around.
▪ Josie ducked and the vase smashed against the wall.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Culley ducked his face into his shoulder and wiped sweat on to his shirt.
▪ He ducked under her arm and slammed his elbow into her back knocking her into the wall.
▪ He did it again, and I would duck.
▪ He has ducked, bobbed and weaved with it, but he is clearly embarrassed by it now.
▪ He wriggled into the impulse-suit, ducked his head into the helmet.
▪ Others just plunged, simply ducked down and pushed out, fighting up, reaching for air.
▪ The bottom was pebbles, the water was sun-warmed; she ducked her head under and came up feeling faintly sick.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
duck

Widgeon \Widg"eon\, n. [Probably from an old French form of F. vigeon, vingeon, gingeon; of uncertain origin; cf. L. vipio, -onis, a kind of small crane.] (Zo["o]l.) Any one of several species of fresh-water ducks, especially those belonging to the subgenus Mareca, of the genus Anas. The common European widgeon ( Anas penelope) and the American widgeon ( Anas Americana) are the most important species. The latter is called also baldhead, baldpate, baldface, baldcrown, smoking duck, wheat, duck, and whitebelly. Bald-faced widgeon, or Green-headed widgeon, the American widgeon. Black widgeon, the European tufted duck. Gray widgeon.

  1. The gadwall.

  2. The pintail duck. Great headed widgeon, the poachard. Pied widgeon.

    1. The poachard.

    2. The goosander.

      Saw-billed widgeon, the merganser.

      Sea widgeon. See in the Vocabulary.

      Spear widgeon, the goosander. [Prov. Eng.]

      Spoonbilled widgeon, the shoveler.

      White widgeon, the smew.

      Wood widgeon, the wood duck.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
duck

waterfowl, Old English duce (found only in genitive ducan) "a duck," literally "a ducker," presumed to be from Old English *ducan "to duck, dive" (see duck (v.)). Replaced Old English ened as the name for the bird, this being from PIE *aneti-, the root of the "duck" noun in most Indo-European languages.\n\nIn the domestic state the females greatly exceed in number, hence duck serves at once as the name of the female and of the race, drake being a specific term of sex.

[OED]

\nAs a term of endearment, attested from 1580s. duck-walk is 1930s; duck soup "anything easily done" is by 1899. Duck's ass haircut is from 1951. Ducks-and-drakes, skipping flat stones on water, is from 1580s; the figurative sense of "throwing something away recklessly" is c.1600.
duck

"strong, untwilled linen (later cotton) fabric," used for sails and sailors' clothing, 1630s, from Dutch doeck "linen cloth" (Middle Dutch doec), related to German Tuch "piece of cloth," Danish dug, Old Frisian dok, Old High German tuoh, all of unknown origin.

duck

"to plunge into" (transitive), c.1300; to suddenly go under water (intransitive), mid-14c., from presumed Old English *ducan "to duck," found only in derivative duce (n.) "duck" (but there are cognate words in other Germanic languages, such as Old High German tuhhan "to dip," German tauchen "to dive," Old Frisian duka, Middle Dutch duken "to dip, dive," Dutch duiken), from Proto-Germanic *dukjan.\n

\nSense of "bend, stoop quickly" is first recorded in English 1520s. Related: Ducked; ducking. The noun is attested from 1550s in the sense of "quick stoop;" meaning "a plunge, dip" is from 1843.

Wiktionary
duck

Etymology 1 vb. 1 (context intransitive English) To lower the head or body in order to prevent it from being struck by something. 2 (context transitive English) To lower (something) into water; to thrust or plunge under liquid and suddenly withdraw. 3 (context intransitive English) To go under the surface of water and immediately reappear; to plunge one's head into water or other liquid. 4 (context transitive English) To lower (the head) in order to prevent it from being struck by something. 5 (context intransitive English) To bow. 6 (context transitive English) To evade doing something. 7 (context transitive English) To lower the volume of (a sound) so that other sounds in the mix can be heard more clearly. Etymology 2

n. 1 An aquatic bird of the family Anatidae, having a flat bill and webbed feet. 2 ''Specifically'', an adult female duck; ''contrasted with'' drake ''and with'' duckling. 3 (context uncountable English) The flesh of a duck used as food. 4 (context cricket English) A batsman's score of zero after getting out. (short for duck's egg, since the digit "0" is round like an egg.) 5 (context slang English) A playing card with the rank of two. 6 A partly-flooded cave passage with limited air space. 7 A building intentionally constructed in the shape of an everyday object to which it is related. 8 A marble to be shoot at with another marble (the shooter) in children's games. 9 (context US English) A cairn used to mark a trail. 10 One of the weights used to hold a spline in place for the purpose of drawing a curve. Etymology 3

alt. 1 A tightly-woven cotton fabric used as sailcloth. 2 (cx in plural English) trousers made of such material. n. 1 A tightly-woven cotton fabric used as sailcloth. 2 (cx in plural English) trousers made of such material. Etymology 4

n. 1 A term of endearment; pet; darling. 2 (context British dialect chiefly East of the Pennines English) dear, mate (informal way of addressing a friend or stranger).

WordNet
duck
  1. n. small wild or domesticated web-footed broad-billed swimming bird usually having a depressed body and short legs

  2. (cricket) a score of nothing by a batsman [syn: duck's egg]

  3. flesh of a duck (domestic or wild)

  4. a heavy cotton fabric of plain weave; used for clothing and tents

duck
  1. v. to move (the head or body) quickly downwards or away; "Before he could duck, another stone struck him"

  2. submerge or plunge suddenly

  3. dip into a liquid; "He dipped into the pool" [syn: dip, douse]

  4. avoid or try to avoid fulfilling, answering, or performing (duties, questions, or issues); "He dodged the issue"; "she skirted the problem"; "They tend to evade their responsibilities"; "he evaded the questions skillfully" [syn: hedge, fudge, evade, put off, circumvent, parry, elude, skirt, dodge, sidestep]

Gazetteer
Wikipedia
Duck (bridge)

In the card game of contract bridge, to duck (or ducking) means to play low to a trick to which one has led, losing it intentionally in order to set up a suit or to preserve a control or entry. While mechanically identical, a duck is a manoeuver in one's own suit, while a hold up is in a suit played by the opponents. Nevertheless, the terms are used interchangeably with duck or ducking more common.

Duck (disambiguation)

Duck is a name applied to several bird species of the family Anatidae.

Duck, The Duck or ducks may also refer to:

Duck

Duck is the common name for a large number of species in the waterfowl family Anatidae, which also includes swans and geese. The ducks are divided among several subfamilies in the family Anatidae; they do not represent a monophyletic group (the group of all descendants of a single common ancestral species) but a form taxon, since swans and geese are not considered ducks. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water.

Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots.

Duck (cricket)

In cricket, a duck is a batsman's dismissal for a score of zero.

Duck (fabric)
Duck (film)

Duck is a 2005 American drama film by director-writer-producer Nic Bettauer. It stars Philip Baker Hall. The film is a dystopian view of the near then-future of 2009.

Duck (guitar)

The Duck guitar is the name given to Yngwie Malmsteen's 1972 cream colored Fender Stratocaster guitar. It is known as the Duck owing to a Donald Duck sticker pasted onto the headstock of the instrument.

Duck (surname)

Duck is the surname of:

  • Andrew J. Duck, United States Democratic politician
  • Arthur Duck (1580–1648), English lawyer and Member of Parliament
  • Emma Duck (born 1981), British sprinter and hurdler
  • Jacob Duck (1600–1667), Dutch painter and etcher
  • Jenny Duck (born 1968), former field hockey player from New Zealand
  • Nicholas Duck (1570–1628), English lawyer
  • Richard Duck, English early 16th-century Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University
  • Simeon Duck (1834–1905), British Columbia businessman and politician
  • Stephen Duck (c. 1705 – 1756), English poet
Duck (nickname)

As a nickname, Duck may refer to:

  • Duck Edwing (born 1934), American cartoonist, particularly for Mad magazine
  • Donald "Duck" Dunn (born 1941), bass player for Booker T. & the M.G.'s and The Blues Brothers
  • Jimmy "Duck" Holmes (born 1947), American blues musician
  • Duck Baker (born 1949), American guitarist
  • Duck MacDonald, American rock guitarist
  • Wayne Carey (born 1971), former Australian rules footballer

Fictional characters:

  • Donald "Duck" Matthews, in the 1991 movie The Five Heartbeats portrayed by Robert Townsend
  • Duck Phillips, on the television show Mad Men

Usage examples of "duck".

He flourished his wrist for just a moment, and Rani ducked her chin, acknowledging the gesture.

The werewolf to the left of Adeem ducked and the star flew by him, hitting Adeem in the shoulder.

The heat was very much stronger than he had expected, and he had to duck his Plexiglas mask away when the near end of the admin building bulged out and then collapsed in a wall of flame.

One time he ducked the attack, skidding to his knees but coming right back up agilely to run on.

Spotting Alec before he could duck back out of sight, they ambled over in his direction.

Crossing the bridge, Alec and Seregil dismounted and ducked into a thicket to change clothes.

He dodged aloose goat, a handcart crusted with dried mortar, and ducked the invitation of a blowzy woman festooned in scarlet ribbons.

Oyster dressing and andouille sausage and a few other goodies are stuffed into a chicken that is then stuffed into a duck that is then stuffed into a turkey.

Charles had been a coachman or a groom, Asey bet, as he ducked behind a clump of bushes and watched the bow - legged little man inarch over to the roadster and play the beam of his flashlight around it, and then over the contents of the seat.

One of the austringers prepared his lure, a piece of meat attached to some duck feathers.

She could not sit like a duck on a pond all night, so Ava carefully began to persuade Lady Purnam to have her new barouche plucked from the stream of carriages outside to drive Ava home.

The coachman held his hand out to Ava, which she took and quickly ducked inside, landing on a thickly padded velvet squab, the same deep red color of the silk covered walls.

All that mattered was that after a moment that seemed to last a year, the dragon sighed, heaved himself out of the wallow with a groan, ducking his head to avoid the canvas awning, and stepped up onto the stone verge.

I looked at Baggy for consolation, but he was ducking behind the lady in front of him.

Ducking inside, she found the rider, Berelain, sipping tea with Amys and Bair and Sorilea, all stretched out on bright, tasseled cushions.