quack
Part of speech: noun
verb
intj
adj
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: From Middle English *quacken, queken (“to croak like a frog; make a noise like a duck, goose, or quail”), from quack, qwacke, quek, queke (“quack”, interjection and noun), also kek, keke, whec-, partly of imitative origin and partly from Middle Dutch quacken (“to croak, quack”), from Old Dutch *kwaken (“to croak, quack”), from Proto-West Germanic *kwakōn, from Proto-Germanic *kwakaną, *kwakōną (“to croak”), of imitative origin. Cognate with Saterland Frisian kwoakje, kwaakje (“to quack”), Middle Low German quaken (“to quack, croak”), German quaken (“to quack, croak”), Danish kvække (“to croak”), Swedish kväka (“to croak, quackle”), Norwegian kvekke (“to croak”), Icelandic kvaka (“to twitter, chirp, quack”).
Inflected forms:
form: quacks
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: quaake
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: quacks
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: quacking
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: quacked
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: quacked
pos: verb
tags: past
form: quaake
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: quaake
pos: intj
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: more quack
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: quacker
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: most quack
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: quackest
pos: adj
tags: superlative
Senses:
gloss: The vocalisation made by a duck.
pos: noun
examples: Did you hear that duck make a quack?
Twice a day she took them out to feed in the marshy places, let them waddle and gobble for an hour or two, and then drove them back and shut them up in a small dark shed to digest their meal, whence they gave forth occasionally a melancholy quack.
gloss: Of a duck, to make its characteristic vocalisation.
pos: verb
examples: The more breadcrumbs I threw on the ground, the more they quacked.
Do you hear the ducks quack?
gloss: To make a sound similar to the quack of a duck.
pos: verb
gloss: Of a queen bee: to make a high-pitched sound during certain stages of development.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
gloss: A duck's quack.
pos: intj
gloss: Falsely presented as having medicinal powers.
pos: adj
examples: Don't get your hopes up; that's quack medicine!
In precisely the same way does a quack doctor prescribe his infallible nostrum to every patient, without taking into account differences of constitution, or [...]
[R]ecently I examined as many newspapers and magazines as I could lay hands on just to see if I could find in them those old, alluring advertisements, ranging from the quack doctor to the quacker promoter and the quackest oracle of fate. There was nothing doing—everything as clean as a hound's tooth and as wholesome as sunshine.
Finding, perhaps, that there is no solution either in politics or in any existing religion, he [the common man] may cling to the diagnosis of the last and quackest of his doctors: he may believe that art can save himself and the world.
When no certain cure exists, quack remedies tend to proliferate and the history of quackery and secret cures is full of extraordinary forms of treatment for the various arthritic disorders.
They desperately want to believe something will help and for that reason they assist one another in obtaining unproven remedies. Such "helpful" promotion is generally more "quack" than fraudulent in nature.
[William] Hogarth might have felt some sympathy for [Sally] Mapp as an 'irregular' expert besting pomposity, but this is topped by his sheer relish for her as the Quackest Quack of all, and female to boot. In Hogarth's print the dark goddess rules over her court of fools, men who have taken over the ancient realm of women's healing, and now profit from the people's ills and credulity.
Derived words: quacker
quackle
quackless
quack like a duck
quacky
Translations:
lang: Arabic
word: زَبَطَ
roman: zabaṭa
lang: Arabic
word: يكاكي
roman: yekaaki
lang: Assamese
word: পেঁক পেঁকোৱা
roman: pẽk pẽküa
lang: Bulgarian
word: крякам
roman: krjakam
lang: Cornish
word: kwackya
lang: Czech
word: káchat
lang: Danish
word: rappe
lang: Dutch
word: kwaken
lang: Esperanto
word: kvaki
lang: Finnish
word: vaakkua
lang: French
word: cancaner
lang: Georgian
word: ყიყინი
roman: q̇iq̇ini
lang: German
word: quaken
lang: Hungarian
word: hápog
lang: Icelandic
word: gagga
lang: Icelandic
word: gussa
lang: Ido
word: kroasar
lang: Ido
word: bramar
lang: Indonesian
word: kwek kwek
lang: Interlingua
word: quaccar
lang: Italian
word: anatrare
lang: Japanese
word: ガーガーと鳴く
roman: gā-gā to naku
lang: Japanese
word: ガヤガヤしゃべる
roman: gayagaya shaberu
lang: Latin
word: tetrinnio
lang: Macedonian
word: ква́ка
roman: kváka
lang: Māori
word: keakea
lang: Māori
word: kēkē
lang: Norwegian
word: kvekke
lang: Polish
word: kwakać
lang: Portuguese
word: grasnar
lang: Portuguese
word: grasnir
lang: Portuguese
word: grassitar
lang: Portuguese
word: gracitar
lang: Romanian
word: măcăi
lang: Russian
word: кря́кать
roman: krjákatʹ
lang: Russian
word: кря́кнуть
roman: krjáknutʹ
lang: Spanish
word: graznar
lang: Spanish
word: parpar
lang: Swedish
word: kvacka
lang: Turkish
word: vaklamak