/ dʌk; NAmE / noun , verb
■ noun
1.
( pl. ducks or duck ) [ C ] a common bird that lives on or near water and has short legs, webbed feet (= feet with thin pieces of skin between the toes) and a wide beak. There are many types of duck, some of which are kept for their meat or eggs :
wild ducks
duck eggs
2.
[ C ] a female duck
—compare drake
3.
[ U ] meat from a duck :
roast duck with orange sauce
4.
(also duckie , ducks , ducky ) [ C , usually sing. ] ( BrE , informal ) a friendly way of addressing sb :
Anything else, duck?
—compare dear , love
5.
a duck [ sing. ] ( in cricket ) a batsman's score of zero :
He was out for a duck.
—see also lame duck , sitting duck
•
IDIOMS
- get / have (all) your ducks in a row
- (take to sth) like a duck to water
—more at dead adjective , water noun
■ verb
1.
duck (down) | duck (behind / under sth) to move your head or body downwards to avoid being hit or seen :
[ v ]
He had to duck as he came through the door.
We ducked down behind the wall so they wouldn't see us.
He just managed to duck out of sight .
[ vn ]
She ducked her head and got into the car.
2.
[ vn ] to avoid sth by moving your head or body out of the way
SYN dodge :
He ducked the first few blows then started to fight back.
3.
[ v + adv. / prep. ] to move somewhere quickly, especially in order to avoid being seen :
She ducked into the adjoining room as we came in.
4.
duck (out of) sth to avoid a difficult or unpleasant duty or responsibility :
[ v ]
It's his turn to cook dinner, but I bet he'll try to duck out of it.
[ vn ]
The government is ducking the issue.
5.
( NAmE also dunk ) [ vn ] to push sb underwater and hold them there for a short time :
The kids were ducking each other in the pool.
••
WORD ORIGIN
noun senses 1 to 3 Old English duce , from the Germanic base of duck in the verb sense (expressing the notion of diving bird ).
verb Middle English : of Germanic origin; related to Dutch duiken and German tauchen dive, dip, plunge, also to duck , the bird.
noun sense 5 mid 19th cent.: short for duck's egg , used for the figure 0 because of its similar outline.
noun sense 4 late 16th cent.: from duck , the bird.