clucked; clucking; clucks
1
: to make a cluck
2
: to make a clicking sound with the tongue
3
: to express interest or concern
critics clucked over the new developments
1
: the characteristic sound made by a hen especially in calling her chicks
2
: a stupid or naive person
a dumb cluck
Synonyms
Noun
- airhead
- birdbrain
- blockhead
- bonehead
- bubblehead
- chowderhead
- chucklehead
- clodpoll
- clodpole
- clot [British]
- clunk
- cretin
- cuddy [British dialect]
- cuddie
- deadhead
- dim bulb [slang]
- dimwit
- dip
- dodo
- dolt
- donkey
- doofus [slang]
- dope
- dork [slang]
- dullard
- dum-dum
- dumbbell
- dumbhead
- dummkopf
- dummy
- dunce
- dunderhead
- fathead
- gander
- golem
- goof
- goon
- half-wit
- hammerhead
- hardhead
- idiot
- ignoramus
- imbecile
- jackass
- know-nothing
- knucklehead
- lamebrain
- loggerhead [chiefly dialect]
- loon
- lump
- lunkhead
- meathead
- mome [archaic]
- moron
- mug [chiefly British]
- mutt
- natural
- nimrod [slang]
- nincompoop
- ninny
- ninnyhammer
- nit [chiefly British]
- nitwit
- noddy
- noodle
- numskull
- numbskull
- oaf
- pinhead
- prat [British]
- ratbag [chiefly Australian]
- saphead
- schlub [slang]
- shlub
- schnook [slang]
- simpleton
- stock
- stupe
- stupid
- thickhead
- turkey
- woodenhead
- yahoo
- yo-yo
Examples of cluck in a Sentence
Verb
The hen clucked at her chicks.
The driver clucked at the horses to get them moving.
Commentators have been clucking over his lack of experience.
Noun
Don't be such a dumb cluck.
stuck with a bunch of clucks on an extended bus tour
Recent Examples on the Web
Amanda Hancock, The Courier-Journal, 19 Feb. 2024
One potential ideal might be a future where anyone who chooses to eat meat keeps a handful of chickens clucking through their backyards.
—Peter Rubin, Longreads, 11 Jan. 2024
Now myriad commentators are running in circles clucking like a flock of wet hens.
—Edward Lotterman, Twin Cities, 18 Jan. 2024
The garden has a busy poultry house filled with clucking guinea fowl and laying hens.
—Jacques Kelly, Baltimore Sun, 16 Jan. 2024
Leader Kim Jong Un tests a nuclear bomb; the world clucks in alarm.
—Sulmaan Khan, Foreign Affairs, 18 Feb. 2016
Just down the street, thousands of chickens clucked in an untended poultry shed.
—Steve Hendrix, Washington Post, 18 Oct. 2023
At the edge of the crowd a local consulting engineer named Henry Murphy watched the carnage and clucked sympathetically as the pasta body count climbed.
—Jeffrey Kluger, Discover Magazine, 11 Nov. 2019
Ivey, Britt and every member of our Congressional delegation — including the lone Democrat, Terri Sewell — shook their fingers and clucked their tongues at the president.
—Kyle Whitmire | Kwhitmire@al.com, al, 1 Aug. 2023
Matthew Every, Field & Stream, 13 Mar. 2024
Hypnotists hush our brains’ analytic tendencies: Shhhh, stop worrying about your tax return and cluck like a chicken.
—Emily Latimer, Longreads, 25 Jan. 2024
So what makes the fried chicken served at a grocery store, no-frills eatery and a couple of high-end restaurants a cluck above the rest?
—South Florida Sun Sentinel, Sun Sentinel, 15 Jan. 2024
Republicans were able to get huge yuks and clucks out of that.
—Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 28 Dec. 2023
There is also a sound detection software, which can infer chicken moods and behaviors through the pitch and pattern of their clucks, chirps, and alerts.
—Charlotte Hu, Popular Science, 19 Oct. 2023
To bring a gobbler out of strut, give him a few clucks on a mouth call (but be ready to shoot).
—Alex Robinson, Outdoor Life, 21 Apr. 2023
Eating candy around the cluck today.
—Hannah Jeon, Good Housekeeping, 21 Feb. 2023
Chickens cluck in the background.
—Melissa Fajardo, The New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2022
Verb
Even a trip to the restroom is a delight, as the sound of chickens clucking in the coop above the bathrooms welcomes you in the door.
—Amanda Hancock, The Courier-Journal, 19 Feb. 2024
One potential ideal might be a future where anyone who chooses to eat meat keeps a handful of chickens clucking through their backyards.
—Peter Rubin, Longreads, 11 Jan. 2024
Now myriad commentators are running in circles clucking like a flock of wet hens.
—Edward Lotterman, Twin Cities, 18 Jan. 2024
The garden has a busy poultry house filled with clucking guinea fowl and laying hens.
—Jacques Kelly, Baltimore Sun, 16 Jan. 2024
Leader Kim Jong Un tests a nuclear bomb; the world clucks in alarm.
—Sulmaan Khan, Foreign Affairs, 18 Feb. 2016
Just down the street, thousands of chickens clucked in an untended poultry shed.
—Steve Hendrix, Washington Post, 18 Oct. 2023
At the edge of the crowd a local consulting engineer named Henry Murphy watched the carnage and clucked sympathetically as the pasta body count climbed.
—Jeffrey Kluger, Discover Magazine, 11 Nov. 2019
Ivey, Britt and every member of our Congressional delegation — including the lone Democrat, Terri Sewell — shook their fingers and clucked their tongues at the president.
—Kyle Whitmire | Kwhitmire@al.com, al, 1 Aug. 2023
Noun
Many still hunters use a step-step-pause cadence to mimic a deer waking or will cluck on a turkey call occasionally while scratching the leaves with a boot.
—Matthew Every, Field & Stream, 13 Mar. 2024
Hypnotists hush our brains’ analytic tendencies: Shhhh, stop worrying about your tax return and cluck like a chicken.
—Emily Latimer, Longreads, 25 Jan. 2024
So what makes the fried chicken served at a grocery store, no-frills eatery and a couple of high-end restaurants a cluck above the rest?
—South Florida Sun Sentinel, Sun Sentinel, 15 Jan. 2024
Republicans were able to get huge yuks and clucks out of that.
—Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 28 Dec. 2023
There is also a sound detection software, which can infer chicken moods and behaviors through the pitch and pattern of their clucks, chirps, and alerts.
—Charlotte Hu, Popular Science, 19 Oct. 2023
To bring a gobbler out of strut, give him a few clucks on a mouth call (but be ready to shoot).
—Alex Robinson, Outdoor Life, 21 Apr. 2023
Eating candy around the cluck today.
—Hannah Jeon, Good Housekeeping, 21 Feb. 2023
Chickens cluck in the background.
—Melissa Fajardo, The New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2022
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'cluck.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near cluck
Cite this Entry
“Cluck.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cluck. Accessed 18 Apr. 2024.
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