Now confined to Sc. and north. dial. Forms: 1 cloccian, 4–6 clok(k, 5 cloyke, 6 Sc. cloik, (8 clocque), 5– clock. [OE. cloccian, corresp. to MDu. clocken, Du. klokken, Sw. klokka, klukka. The other Teut. langs. have forms with u, like mod. Eng. CLUCK, though o forms are not uncommon dialectally: see klocken2 in Grimm = klucken, glucken. Of echoic origin; as are also L. gloc-īre and Gr. κλώζ-ειν (fut. κλώξω, deriv. κλωγ-μός).]
1. intr. To make the peculiar noise of a brooding hen; to cluck.
c. 1050. Byrhtferth’s Handboc, 76. in Anglia, VIII. 309. Ðeah seo brodiʓe henn … sarlice clocciʓe heo tospræt hyre fyðera.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XII. xvii. (Tollem. MS.). [The capon] clokkeþ as an hen, and clepeþ chikens to gedir, clokkynge with an hose voyse.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 83. Clokkyn as hennys, crispio.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, XIII. ii. 133. Hyr birdis sine, clokkand, scho seikis on raw.
1570. Sempill Ballates, 84. They say he can baith quhissill and cloik [rhyme-wds. mock, block].
1583. Stanyhurst, Æneis, To Rdr. (Arb.), 14. Yt were lyke ynough that soom grammatical pullet … would stand clocking agaynst mee, as thogh hee had found an horse nest.
1631. R. H., Arraignm. Whole Creature, xii. § 5. 150. The Cock … when he hath found a Barly Corn clocks, and calls to it his Hennes.
1702. C. Mather, Magn. Chr., VI. vii. (1852), 452. He bark’d like a dog, then he clocqu’d like an hen.
1783. Ainsworth, Lat. Dict. (Morell), I. To clock, or cluck, glocio.
1808–79. Jamieson, Clock, Clok, to cluck, to call chickens together.
† 2. trans. To call (chickens) by this note. Obs.
c. 1420. Pallad. on Husb., I. 660. Nowe she [the hen] goth before, And clocketh hem.
1548. Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Matt. xxiii. 109 b. The carefull hen, fearing her chickens, dothe clocke them together.
1606. Earl Northampton, in True & Perf. Rel., Ff iv b. So long doeth the great brood Hen clocke her chickens.
† b. fig.
1529. More, Comf. agst. Trib., II. Wks. 1179/2. Like a louing hen, he clocketh home vnto him, euen those chikins of hys.
1570–6. Lambarde, Peramb. Kent (1826), 244. Edburge … clocked together a sort of simple women, which under her wing there tooke upon them the Popish veile of widowhood.
a. 1716. South, Serm., IV. 54. Engaging men … to hold forth … wheresoever, and howsoever, they could clock the senseless and unthinking rabble about them.
3. intr. Applied to similar inarticulate sounds, made by the mouth, stomach, etc. [Cf. Ger. dial. klocken2 in Grimm.]
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 220. Sona biþ seo wamb ʓehefeʓod and cloccet swa swa hit on cylle slecʓete.
1547. Boorde, Brev. Health, § 309. Rvgitvs ventris be the latin wordes. In Englyshe it is named crokyng, or clockyng in ones bely.
1553. Bale, Gardiner’s Obed., E vj. To clocke or to saye naye, to those thinges þt have ben done.
1871. Wise, New Forest, 186.
1883. Hampsh. Gloss., Clocking, the sound made by falling, gurgling water.
4. intr. and trans. To sit on eggs; to incubate, hatch. (Now the common use in northern dial.)
1721. Kelly, Sc. Prov., 369 (Jam.). You are so keen in the Clocking, you’ll die in the Nest.
1808–79. Jamieson, Clock, to hatch, to sit on eggs. This is the modern sense.
1811. Willan, Gloss. W. Riding Yorksh., Clock, to hatch.
b. fig. To ‘hatch.’
1836. Galt, in Tait’s Mag., III. 31. It was he that first clockit the project.
Hence Clock-, vb.-stem in Comb., as † clock-hen [Du. klokhen, MHG. kluckhenne], clocking hen.
1583. Golding, Calvin on Deut. clxxx. 1121. God … vpbraideth vs, yt he hath played ye clockhen towardes vs, and wee could not abide it.
1591. Percivall, Sp. Dict., Clucca gallina, a clocke hen, glocitans gallina, vel incumbans.
