[Goes with CLUCK v., the imitative sound being used as both vb. and sb.]
1. interj. An imitation of the abrupt hollow guttural sound made by a hen desiring to sit, or calling her brood together, or of a similar sound.
1829. Southey, Pilgr. Compostella, II. Cluck! cluck! cried the Hen right merrily then.
1840. P. Parley’s Annual, I. 115. The clock … went cluck.… ‘There,’ said his father, ‘it gives the warning; it is on the stroke of two.’
2. As a name for this sound.
1703. Dampier, Voy., III. ii. 75. They make a Noise or Cluck like our Brood-Hens when they have Chickens.
1863. Johns, Home Walks, 35. A Blackbird … uttered a few low clucks, and … flew off.
1875. Whitney, Life Lang., 3. The domestic fowl has … a cluck of maternal anticipation or care.
fig. 1817. Coleridge, Parl. Oscillators, iv. Now cluttering to the treasury cluck, like chicken.
3. Any similar sound; e.g., that made by a clock in ‘warning.’
1840. P. Parley’s Annual, I. 54. It [the clock] gives a cluck, as much as to say, There’s music for you.
1874. T. Hardy, Madding Crowd, II. xvii. 209. The cluck of their oars was the only sound of any distinctness.
b. The click in South African languages.
4. attrib. or as adj.
1772. Mrs. Harris, in Priv. Lett. 1st Ld. Malmesbury, I. 256. A blind fiddler, who spoke in a thorough cluck voice.
