different between quack vs quacky

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

English

Etymology

From quack +? -y.

Adjective

quacky (comparative quackier, superlative quackiest)

1. (of a voice or sound) That resembles the quack of a duck.
   • 1907, Le Grand Kerr, Diagnostics of the Diseases of Children, page 177,

     With progressive prostration (which is more marked in young infants) and with a tone to the cry which is a sort of a thin, crowing, quacky sound, points to the existence of retropharyngeal lymphadenitis.

   • 2011, Minrose Gwin, Wishing for Snow, unnumbered page,

     Suddenly I hear a roar like a lion then a gagging sound like someone is getting choked to death then high-pitched voices little quacky voices like the Chipmunks on the radio calling back and forth to one another Christmas Christmas time is here time for joy and time for cheer.

2. Fraudulent; characterised by or using the methods of quackery.
   • 1919, Oral Hygeine, Volume 9, page 921,

     The Doctor says that some of the quackiest of the quacks are in the army.

   • 1998 September 9, Joni Mitchell, interview quoted in 2003, Alan Hecht, Polio, page 72,

     I know this sounds real quacky but they did some mysterious good to the problem and I feel fine.

   • 2003, Wayne Besen, Anything but Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth, unnumbered page,

     Although some of the moments surrounding my coming out may seem humorous in retrospect, the underlying harsh fact is that thousands of desperate people are willing to embrace the quackiest of measures to cure homosexuality in themselves or in loved ones, and this is anything but funny.

   • 2008, John Hayes, Primate Wars, page 115,

     David's expression changes. A quack? All this act is about some quacky, pseudo science, right on, I know something you don't cult thing.

   • 2010, Herb Schultz, Double Blind Test, page 37,

     Dr. Torrent described the signs and symptoms of RP,^{[retinitis pigmentosa]} surveyed the established research into causes of the disease, and summarized the failed attempts to develop a cure, including a barbaric method pioneered in the USSR involving the injection of quacky medicine directly into the patient's eyeball.

   • 2010, Margie Hinkle, Sherry Hatchett, Bonnie Holmes (editors), I Walk with God: The Autobiography of Marjorie Clevenger Hinkle, page 21,

     The housemother was a relief housemother, and she was quacky, and we didn't think she knew anything.

3. (US, of land or a crop) Infested with quackgrass.
   • 1859, The Cultivator, Volume 7, 3rd Series, page 54,

     After the first hoeing of a quacky crop, it is often well to go over it lightly in the middle of a hot day, just skimming the surface of the soil, and cutting off the young grass.

   • 1890, Ontario Legislative Assembly, Sessional Papers - Legislature of the Province of Ontario, Volume 1, page 14,

     Always work quacky land when it is driest.

   • 1914, New York (State) Department of Agriculture, Annual Report, Volume 1, Part 2, page 544,

     When would you advise plowing sandy soil that is quacky for beans?