duck

noun · verb

Simple meaning

A water bird with a wide flat beak and webbed feet.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

duhk

US device voice

IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈdʌk

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

An aquatic bird of the family Anatidae, having a flat bill and webbed feet.
Small wild or domesticated web-footed broad-billed swimming bird usually having a depressed body and short legs
A heavy cotton fabric of plain weave; used for clothing and tents
A tightly-woven cotton fabric used as sailcloth.
Specifically, an adult female duck; contrasted with drake and with duckling.
in the plural
Trousers made of such material.

verb

transitive
To quickly lower (the head or body), often in order to prevent it from being struck by something.
transitive
To lower (something) into water; to thrust or plunge under liquid and suddenly withdraw.
intransitive
To go under the surface of water and immediately reappear; to plunge one's head into water or other liquid.
transitive
To surreptitiously leave a rubber duck on someone's parked Jeep as an act of kindness.
transitive
To lower the volume of (a sound) so that other sounds in the mix can be heard more clearly.
intransitivecolloquial
To enter a place for a short moment.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty: B2 · Upper Intermediate
Frequency: Common
Typical Use: Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: An aquatic bird of the family Anatidae, having a flat bill and webbed feet.

Used this way, duck is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in family or home contexts.

Emotional tone: Neutral
Formality: Neutral
Intensity: Not strongly marked
How common: Moderately common
Connotation: Matter-of-fact
Usage feel: Neutral and straightforward

Where it naturally appears

Family/home

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use duck

“Before he could duck, another stone struck him.”verb

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Aquatic / small

duck ponddead duck

Flesh

duck soup

Other combinations

wood ducklame ducksitting duckduck huntingduck eggs

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

duckynounDerived noun
A special loved one.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

duck patenounCompound term
A pate made from duck liver.
duck saucenounCompound term
A thick sweet and pungent Chinese condiment.
duck shotnounCompound term
Small lead shot for shotgun shells.
duck soupnounCompound term
Any undertaking that is easy to do.
ducking stoolnounCompound term
An instrument of punishment consisting of a chair in which offenders were ducked in water.
ducks and drakesnounCompound term
A game in which a flat stone is bounced along the surface of calm water.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

ducklingnounRelated term
Flesh of a young domestic duck.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: to quickly lower (the head or body)

dip

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.