different between cack vs lack

English

Etymology 1

Onomatopoeia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kæk/
• Rhymes: -æk

Noun

cack (plural cacks)

1. A squawk.
2. A discordant note.

Verb

cack (third-person singular simple present cacks, present participle cacking, simple past and past participle cacked)

1. (of a bird) To squawk.
   • 2000, Minnesota Ornithologists? Union, The Loon, Volumes 72-74, page 37,

     While the Gyrfalcon cacked loudly on each stoop, the owl did not scream.
2. (brass instrument technique) To incorrectly play a note by hitting a partial other than the one intended.

Etymology 2

From Middle English cakken, from Old English *cacian, from Old English cac (“dung; excrement”), of uncertain origin and relation. Cognate with English caca. Compare Dutch kakken (“to defecate”), German kacken (“to relieve oneself; defecate”), Latin cac?re (“to defecate”); cf. also Irish cac (“feces, excrement”).

Verb

cack (third-person singular simple present cacks, present participle cacking, simple past and past participle cacked)

1. (intransitive) To defecate.
2. (US, slang) To kill.

   “He tried to shoot me, so I cacked him.”

Synonyms

• (to shit): See Thesaurus:defecate
• (to kill): See Thesaurus:kill

Noun

cack (plural cacks)

1. An act of defecation.
2. Excrement.
3. Rubbish.

Synonyms

• (excrement): caca; see also Thesaurus:feces

Derived terms

• cack-handed, cack-house (archaic)

Translations

Etymology 3

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Verb

cack (third-person singular simple present cacks, present participle cacking, simple past and past participle cacked)

1. (Australian slang) To laugh.

   I had to cack when you fell down the stairs.

See also

• cack up

Etymology 4

From cock.

Noun

cack (uncountable)

1. (slang) penis.

English

Etymology

Middle English, cognate with or from Middle Low German lak, Middle Dutch lac (“deficiency”) and Middle Dutch laken (“blame, lack”); all ultimately from Proto-Germanic *laka-, related to *lak(k)?n- (“to blame, reproach”), from Proto-Indo-European *lok-néh?-. See also Dutch lak (“calumny”), Old Norse lakr (“lacking”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /lak/
• (US) IPA^(key): /læk/
• Rhymes: -æk

Noun

lack (countable and uncountable, plural lacks)

1. (obsolete) A defect or failing; moral or spiritual degeneracy.
2. A deficiency or need (of something desirable or necessary); an absence, want.
   • c. 1596, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act IV, Scene 1,^[1]

     […] let his lack of years be no impediment to let him lack a reverend estimation;

   • 1994, Green Day, Basket Case

     I went to a shrink, to analyze my dreams. He said it's lack of sex that's bringing me down.

Antonyms

• glut
• surplus

Derived terms

• lackless

Translations

Verb

lack (third-person singular simple present lacks, present participle lacking, simple past and past participle lacked)

1. (transitive) To be without, to need, to require.

   My life lacks excitement.

2. (intransitive) To be short (of or for something).

   He'll never lack for company while he's got all that money.

   • c. 1600,, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act I, Scene 4,^[2]

     Hamlet. What hour now?

     Horatio. I think it lacks of twelve.

3. (intransitive, obsolete) To be in want.
   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Psalm 34.10,^[3]

     The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger […]

4. (obsolete) To see the deficiency in (someone or something); to find fault with, to malign, reproach.
   • c. 1385, William Langland, Piers Plowman, II:

     That is Mede þe Mayde quod she · hath noyed me ful oft / And ylakked my lemman.

Related terms

• lackluster

Translations

Further reading

• Kroonen, Guus (2013) , “lak(k)on-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 11), Leiden, Boston: Brill, ?ISBN, page 325

Anagrams

• calk, kcal

German

Pronunciation

Verb

lack

1. imperative singular of lacken
2. (colloquial) first-person singular present of lacken

Swedish

Etymology

From French lacre (“sealing wax”), from Portuguese laca.

Noun

lack n

1. lacquer

Declension

Related terms

• klarlack
• lacknafta
• lackskor
• nagellack