Definition of "cuckoo"

cuckoo

/ˈkʊk.uː/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural cuckoos
1. Any of various birds, of the family Cuculidae, famous for laying its eggs in the nests of other species; but especially a common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus), that has a characteristic two-note call.
  Quotations
  He knows me, as the blind man knows the cuckoo, / By the bad voice.
  c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene i]
2. The sound of that particular bird.
3. The bird-shaped figure found in cuckoo clocks.
4. The cuckoo clock itself.
5. A person who inveigles themselves into a place where they should not be (used especially in the phrase a cuckoo in the nest).
6. (slang) Someone who is crazy.
7. Alternative form of coo-coo (“Barbadian food”)
verb
third-person singular simple present cuckoos, present participle cuckooing, simple past and past participle cuckooed
1. To make the call of a cuckoo.
2. To repeat something incessantly.
3. (UK, law enforcement) To take over the home of a vulnerable person for the purposes of carrying out organized crime in a concealed way.
  Quotations
  She'll have been cuckooed. That'll be the Knezevics. They can't launder fast enough, so what do you do with it? Where do you put it? You hide it in somebody else's place; somebody who han't got a clue what's going on and couldn't do a fat lot about it if they did.
  2023, Sally Wainwright, 26:06 from the start, in Happy Valley, season 3, episode 2, spoken by Catherine Cawood (Sarah Lancashire)
adjective
comparative more cuckoo, superlative most cuckoo
1. (slang) Crazy; not sane.

Definition of "cuckoo"

cuckoo

noun

Quotations

verb

Quotations

adjective