different between cluck vs quack

English

Alternative forms

• clutch (dialectal)
• clock

Etymology

From Middle English clokken, clocken, from Old English cloccian (“to cluck, make a noise”), from Proto-Germanic *klukkw?n? (“to make a sound, cluck”), of imitative origin. Cognate with Scots clok, clock (“to cluck”), Dutch klokken (“to cluck”), Low German klucken (“to cluck”), German glucken (“to cluck”), Danish klukke (“to cluck”), Swedish klucka (“to cluck”), Icelandic klökkva (“to sob, whine, cluck”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kl?k/
• Rhymes: -?k

Noun

cluck (plural clucks)

1. The sound made by a hen, especially when brooding, or calling her chicks.
2. Any sound similar to this.
3. A kind of tongue click used to urge on a horse.

Translations

Verb

cluck (third-person singular simple present clucks, present participle clucking, simple past and past participle clucked)

1. (intransitive) To make such a sound.
2. (transitive) To cause (the tongue) to make a clicking sound.

   My mother clucked her tongue in disapproval.

3. To call together, or call to follow, as a hen does her chickens.
4. (Britain, drug slang) to suffer withdrawal from heroin.

Translations

See also

• cackle

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kwæk/
• Rhymes: -æk

Etymology 1

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-Germanic *kwakan?, *kwak?n? (“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”).

Alternative forms

• quaake (obsolete)

Noun

quack (plural quacks)

1. The sound made by a duck.

Translations

Verb

quack (third-person singular simple present quacks, present participle quacking, simple past and past participle quacked)

1. To make a noise like a duck.

Derived terms

Translations

References

Etymology 2

Clipping of quacksalver, from Middle Dutch kwaksalver (“hawker of salve”) (modern Dutch kwakzalver), from quacken (“to brag, boast; to croak”). Ultimately related to etymology one, above.

Noun

quack (plural quacks)

2. A fraudulent healer or incompetent professional; especially, a doctor of medicine who makes false diagnoses or inappropriate treatment; an impostor who claims to have qualifications to practice medicine. [from c. 1630]
   • 1636, John Ford, The Fancies Chaste and Noble

     The very quack of fashions, the very he that / Wears a stiletto on his chin.

   • 1662, Rump: or an Exact Collection of the Choycest Poems and Songs Relating to Late Times, Vol. II, by ‘the most Eminent Wits’

     Tis hard to say, how much these Arse-wormes do urge us, We now need no Quack but these Jacks for to purge us, [...]

   • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 2, ch. 8, The Electon

     ‘if we are ourselves valets, there shall ‘exist no hero for us; we shall not know the hero when we see him;’ - we shall take the quack for a hero; and cry, audibly through all ballot-boxes and machinery whatsoever, Thou art he; be thou King over us!

   • 1981, S.O.B. (film):

     Polly (to security guard, referring to Dr. Feingarten): Are you going to let that shyster in there?

     Dr. Feingarten: I could sue you, Polly. A shyster is a disreputable lawyer. I'm a quack.

3. A charlatan.
4. (slang) A doctor.

Synonyms

• medicaster (dated, now chiefly literary)
• quacksalver
• See also Thesaurus:deceiver

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

quack (third-person singular simple present quacks, present participle quacking, simple past and past participle quacked)

1. To practice or commit quackery (fraudulent medicine).
   • 1722, Daniel Defoe, A Journal of the Plague Year, London: E. Nutt et al., p. 36,^[1]

     […] it is incredible, and scarce to be imagin’d, how the Posts of Houses, and Corners of Streets were plaster’d over with Doctors Bills, and Papers of ignorant Fellows; quacking and tampering in Physick, and inviting the People to come to them for Remedies;

2. (obsolete) To make vain and loud pretensions.

   Synonym: boast

   • 1684, Samuel Butler, Hudibras, London, Part 3, Canto 1, p. 18,^[2]

     Seek out for Plants with Signatures

     To Quack of Universal Cures

Translations

Adjective

quack (comparative more quack or quacker, superlative most quack or quackest) (quacker and quackest are rare, and probably used humorously)

1. Falsely presented as having medicinal powers.

Translations

Further reading

• quack (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• quackery on Wikipedia.Wikipedia