1. small wild or domesticated web-footed broad-billed swimming bird usually having a depressed body and short legs;
2. (cricket) a score of nothing by a batsman;
[syn: duck, duck's egg]
3. flesh of a duck (domestic or wild);
4. a heavy cotton fabric of plain weave; used for clothing and tents;
1. to move (the head or body) quickly downwards or away;
- Example: "Before he could duck, another stone struck him"
2. submerge or plunge suddenly;
3. dip into a liquid;
- Example: "He dipped into the pool"
[syn: dip, douse, duck]
4. avoid or try to avoid fulfilling, answering, or performing (duties, questions, or issues);
- Example: "He dodged the issue"
- Example: "she skirted the problem"
- Example: "They tend to evade their responsibilities"
- Example: "he evaded the questions skillfully"
[syn: hedge, fudge, evade, put off, circumvent, parry, elude, skirt, dodge, duck, sidestep]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Widgeon \Widg"eon\, n. [Probably from an old French form of F. vigeon, vingeon, gingeon; of uncertain origin; cf. L. vipio, -onis, a kind of small crane.] (Zool.) Any one of several species of fresh-water ducks, especially those belonging to the subgenus Mareca, of the genus Anas. The common European widgeon (Anas penelope) and the American widgeon (Anas Americana) are the most important species. The latter is called also baldhead, baldpate, baldface, baldcrown, smoking duck, wheat, duck, and whitebelly. [1913 Webster] Bald-faced widgeon, or Green-headed widgeon, the American widgeon. Black widgeon, the European tufted duck. Gray widgeon. (a) The gadwall. (b) The pintail duck. Great headed widgeon, the poachard. Pied widgeon. (a) The poachard. (b) The goosander. Saw-billed widgeon, the merganser. Sea widgeon. See in the Vocabulary. Spear widgeon, the goosander. [Prov. Eng.] Spoonbilled widgeon, the shoveler. White widgeon, the smew. Wood widgeon, the wood duck. [1913 Webster]The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Duck \Duck\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Ducked; p. pr. & vb. n. Ducking.] [OE. duken, douken, to dive; akin to D. duiken, OHG. t?hhan, MHG. tucken, t["u]cken, t?chen, G. tuchen. Cf. 5th Duck.] 1. To thrust or plunge under water or other liquid and suddenly withdraw. [1913 Webster] Adams, after ducking the squire twice or thrice, leaped out of the tub. --Fielding. [1913 Webster] 2. To plunge the head of under water, immediately withdrawing it; as, duck the boy. [1913 Webster] 3. To bow; to bob down; to move quickly with a downward motion. " Will duck his head aside." --Swift. [1913 Webster]The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Duck \Duck\ (d[u^]k), n. [Cf. Dan. dukke, Sw. docka, OHG. doccha, G. docke. Cf. Doxy.] A pet; a darling. --Shak. [1913 Webster]The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Duck \Duck\, n. [D. doek cloth, canvas, or Icel. d[=u]kr cloth; akin to OHG. tuoh, G. tuch, Sw. duk, Dan. dug.] 1. A linen (or sometimes cotton) fabric, finer and lighter than canvas, -- used for the lighter sails of vessels, the sacking of beds, and sometimes for men's clothing. [1913 Webster] 2. (Naut.) pl. The light clothes worn by sailors in hot climates. [Colloq.] [1913 Webster]The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Duck \Duck\ (d[u^]k), v. i. 1. To go under the surface of water and immediately reappear; to dive; to plunge the head in water or other liquid; to dip. [1913 Webster] In Tiber ducking thrice by break of day. --Dryden. [1913 Webster] 2. To drop the head or person suddenly; to bow. [1913 Webster] The learned pate Ducks to the golden fool. --Shak. [1913 Webster]The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Duck \Duck\, n. [OE. duke, doke. See Duck, v. t. ] 1. (Zool.) Any bird of the subfamily Anatin[ae], family Anatid[ae]. [1913 Webster] Note: The genera and species are numerous. They are divided into river ducks and sea ducks. Among the former are the common domestic duck (Anas boschas); the wood duck (Aix sponsa); the beautiful mandarin duck of China (Dendronessa galeriliculata); the Muscovy duck, originally of South America (Cairina moschata). Among the sea ducks are the eider, canvasback, scoter, etc. [1913 Webster] 2. A sudden inclination of the bead or dropping of the person, resembling the motion of a duck in water. [1913 Webster] Here be, without duck or nod, Other trippings to be trod. --Milton. [1913 Webster] Bombay duck (Zool.), a fish. See Bummalo. Buffel duck, Spirit duck. See Buffel duck. Duck ant (Zool.), a species of white ant in Jamaica which builds large nests in trees. Duck barnacle. (Zool.) See Goose barnacle. Duck hawk. (Zool.) (a) In the United States: The peregrine falcon. (b) In England: The marsh harrier or moor buzzard. Duck mole (Zool.), a small aquatic mammal of Australia, having webbed feet and a bill resembling that of a duck (Ornithorhynchus anatinus). It belongs the subclass Monotremata and is remarkable for laying eggs like a bird or reptile; -- called also duckbill, platypus, mallangong, mullingong, tambreet, and water mole. To make ducks and drakes, to throw a flat stone obliquely, so as to make it rebound repeatedly from the surface of the water, raising a succession of jets; hence: To play at ducks and drakes, with property, to throw it away heedlessly or squander it foolishly and unprofitably. Lame duck. See under Lame. [1913 Webster]U.S. Gazetteer (1990):
Duck, WV Zip code(s): 25063Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
332 Moby Thesaurus words for "duck": Adamite, Bantam, Cornish hen, about the bush, also-ran, angel, avert, avoid, avoidance, avoiding reaction, babe, baby, baby-doll, back and fill, banty, baptism, baptize, barn-door fowl, barnyard fowl, bastard, beat around, beg the question, being, bend, bend the knee, biddy, bilk, bird, blench, blink, bob, body, booby, bow, broiler, brooder, broody hen, bugger, burial, bury, buttercup, caille, canard, caneton, capon, case, cat, chanticleer, chap, chapon, character, cherub, chick, chickabiddy, chicken, chicky, circumvention, cock, cockerel, creature, cringe, crouch, curtsy, customer, darling, dear, deary, defeatee, defense mechanism, deluge, dindon, dip, dipping, dive, dodge, dog it, doll, domestic fowl, double, douse, dousing, drake, draw back, draw in, drown, duck duty, ducking, duckling, dunghill fowl, dunk, dunking, earthling, elude, elusion, elusiveness, engulf, engulfment, equivocate, equivocation, escape, eschew, evade, evasion, evasive action, evasiveness, fade, faisan, fall back, fall guy, fallback, feller, fellow, fence, flinch, float, flood, flow on, forbearance, forestalling, forestallment, fowl, fryer, game fowl, game loser, gander, genuflect, genuflection, get out of, getting around, gobbler, goldbrick, good loser, good sport, goof off, goose, gosling, groundling, grouse, guinea cock, guinea fowl, guinea hen, guy, hand, hang back, head, hedge, hem and haw, hen, hen turkey, homo, hon, honey, honey bunch, honey child, hum and haw, human, human being, immerge, immergence, immerse, immersion, individual, inundate, inundation, jasper, jib, jink, joker, kneel, kneeling, kowtow, lad, lamb, lambkin, life, living soul, loser, love, lover, make a reverence, malinger, man, merge, mince the truth, mince words, mortal, neutrality, nod, nonintervention, noninvolvement, nose, not pull fair, obeisance, oddball, oddity, oie, one, original, overwhelm, palter, parry, partlet, partridge, party, person, personage, personality, pet, petkins, pheasant, pigeon, pigeonneau, plunge, plunge in water, poulard, poulet, poult, poultry, pour on, precious, precious heart, prevaricate, prevent, prevention, prostration, pull away, pull back, pull in, pull out, pullback, pullet, pullout, pussyfoot, put off, quail, quiz, rain, recoil, reel back, refraining, retract, retreat, reverence, roaster, rooster, salaam, setting hen, sheer off, shift, shift off, shirk, shrink, shrink back, shun, shunning, shunting off, shy, shy away, shy off, sidestep, sidestepping, sidetracking, single, sink, sinking, skulk, slack, slide out of, slip, slip out of, sluice, sneak out of, snookums, soldier, somebody, someone, soul, souse, sousing, spook, sport, spring chicken, squab, squat, start aside, start back, steer clear of, step aside, stewing chicken, stooge, stoop, stud, submerge, submergence, submerse, submersion, sugar, supination, swamp, sweet, sweetheart, sweetie, sweetkins, sweets, swerve, tellurian, tergiversate, terran, the runaround, the vanquished, tom, tom turkey, turkey, turkey gobbler, turkey-cock, turn aside, underdog, victim, volaille, waffle, ward, ward off, weasel, weasel out, welsh, whelm, wild duck, wince, withdraw, worldling, zigzag, zombie