Definition of "duck"

duck¹

/dʌk/

verb
third-person singular simple present ducks, present participle ducking, simple past and past participle ducked
1. (intransitive) To quickly lower the head or body, often in order to prevent it from being struck by something.
2. (transitive) To quickly lower (the head or body), often in order to prevent it from being struck by something.
  Quotations
  As some raw youth in country bred,To arms by thirst of honour led,When at a skirmish first he hearsThe bullets whistling round his ears,Will duck his head aside
  c. 1729, Jonathan Swift, To Dr. Delany on the Libels Written Against Him
  Rimmer ducked his body low into his chair, so just his head remained above the table top, and peered past the backs of the examinees in front of him, waiting for the adjudicator to make his move.
  1989, Grant Naylor, Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers
3. (transitive) To lower (something) into water; to thrust or plunge under liquid and suddenly withdraw.
  Quotations
  Adams, after ducking the squire twice or thrice, leaped out of the tub.
  1743, Henry Fielding, The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews, and His Friend Mr. Abraham Adams. […], 3rd edition, volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, […]
4. (intransitive) To go under the surface of water and immediately reappear; to plunge one's head into water or other liquid.
  Quotations
  […] In Tiber ducking thrice, by break of day […]
  1693, Aulus Persius Flaccus, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus.] The Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: Printed for Jacob Tonson […], page 22
5. (intransitive) To bow.
  Quotations
  The Learned pate / Duckes to the Golden Foole.
  c. 1605–1608, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene iii], page 90, column 2
6. (transitive) To evade doing something.
  Quotations
  Victorian women choosing to duck the demands of domestic life to spend their time doing something they enjoyed is hardly a novel idea.
  2018 July 21, Kathryn Hughes, “The strange cult of Emily Brontë and the 'hot mess' of Wuthering Heights”, in The Guardian‎
  But pressed by Labour's Marsha de Cordov in the House of Commons on June 29, on "whether he plans to reduce the total number of ticket offices", Merriman ducked the question but confirmed that the Government wants to close ticket offices.
  2023 July 12, Mel Holley, “Network News: RDG presses ahead with ticket office closure plan”, in RAIL, number 987, page 7
7. (transitive) To lower the volume of (a sound) so that other sounds in the mix can be heard more clearly.
  Quotations
  The music is ducked under the voice.
  2007, Alexander U. Case, Sound FX: unlocking the creative potential of recording studio effects, page 183
8. (intransitive, colloquial) To enter a place for a short moment.
noun
plural ducks
1. (caving) A cave passage containing water with low, or no, airspace.

duck²

/dʌk/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural ducks or duck
1. An aquatic bird of the family Anatidae, having a flat bill and webbed feet.
2. Specifically, an adult female duck; contrasted with drake and with duckling.
3. (uncountable) The flesh of a duck used as food.
4. (cricket) A batsman's score of zero after getting out. (short for duck's egg, since the digit "0" is round like an egg.)
5. (slang) A playing card with the rank of two.
6. A building intentionally constructed in the shape of an everyday object to which it is related.
  Quotations
  The Big Duck has influenced the world of architecture; any building that is shaped like its product is called a ‘duck’.
  2007 February 21, Cynthia Blair, “It Happened on Long Island: 1988—Suffolk County Adopts the Big Duck”, in Newsday
7. A marble to be shot at with another marble (the shooter) in children's games.
8. (US) A cairn used to mark a trail.
9. One of the weights used to hold a spline in place for the purpose of drawing a curve.
10. (finance, slang, dated) Synonym of lame duck (“one who cannot fulfil their contracts”)
11. (medicine) A long-necked medical urinal for men; a bed urinal.
12. (UK, slang, obsolete) A faggot; a meatball made from offal.
13. (US, LGBT, prison slang) Synonym of bitch (“a man forced or coerced into a homosexual relationship, especially in prison”).
  Quotations
  The more passive males are subjected to physical violence. I was subjected to being what they call a punk or a duck, which is someone else's power trip, that's all.
  1986 April 19, Michael Rathbone, “Tell Someone”, in Gay Community News, page 4

duck³

/dʌk/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural ducks
1. A tightly-woven cotton fabric used as sailcloth.
  Quotations
  He was dressed in a Jaeger vest—a pair of blue duck trousers, fastened round the waist with a plaited leather belt.
  1912, Katherine Mansfield, “The Woman At The Store”, in Selected Short Stories
2. (in the plural) Trousers made of such material.
  Quotations
  And they would go up and find old Allington, in white ducks, standing in the fringe of long grasses and cow-parsley on the other edge of the island, looking to his poultry or his rabbits.
  1918 March, Rebecca West [pseudonym; Cicily Isabel Fairfield], chapter III, in The Return of the Soldier, 1st US edition, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., pages 67–68
  A native servant emerged, anonymous in his white ducks and red fez, to say My Player was wanted on the telephone.
  1954, Doris Lessing, A Proper Marriage, HarperPerennial, published 1995, page 74

duck⁴

/dʌk/

noun
plural ducks
1. A term of endearment; pet; darling.
  Quotations
  […] and hold-faſt is the onely Dogge: My Ducke […]
  1599, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene iii], page 75, column 2
2. (Midlands) Dear, mate (informal way of addressing a friend or stranger).

Definition of "duck"

duck1

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duck2

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duck3

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duck4

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duck¹

duck²

duck³

duck⁴