cluck
part of speech
verb (cluck, clucks, clucked, clucking); noun (a cluck, clucks)
meaning for a pupil
1) (verb) When a hen clucks, she makes her short, low, repeated sound. tree →
2) (noun) That sound a hen makes. tree →
3) (verb) To make a clicking sound with your tongue to show you disapprove, are sorry or are worried: «Mum clucked her tongue». tree →
4) (verb) To fuss over someone in a worried, caring way, like a mother hen: «cluck over the baby». tree →
5) (noun, slang, US, old) A silly or stupid person: «You dumb cluck!» tree →
sense in the lessons
In farm topics and animal sounds in early reading: cows moo, hens cluck. In stories «clucked her tongue» shows an adult who is unhappy, worried or sympathetic; «clucked over» shows someone fussing. Phrases: «cluck your tongue», «cluck over», «cluck and fuss», «cluck-cluck».
examples
- The hens clucked happily in the farmyard. tree →
- We heard a cluck from inside the henhouse. tree →
- Gran clucked her tongue when she saw my muddy shoes. tree →
- The aunties clucked over the new baby all afternoon. tree →
- Cluck, cluck, went the chicken as it pecked the corn. tree →
- The teacher clucked sympathetically when I told her about my lost dog. tree →
- In the old cartoon, the sailor called his friend a dumb cluck. tree →
- “No, no!” clucked the elder bird. tree →
note
The word copies the sound itself (onomatopoeia), like «moo» and «quack». A hen clucks; a rooster crows; chicks cheep. «Cluck» (sound) and «clock» (time) sound different. «Dumb cluck» is old-fashioned and a bit unkind.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «cluck» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.