cluck

verb \ ˈklək \

Updated on: 18 Mar 2018

Definition of cluck

intransitive verb

1 : to make a cluck

2 : to make a clicking sound with the tongue

3 : to express interest or concern

critics clucked over the new developments

transitive verb

1 : to call with a cluck

2 : to express with interest or concern

See cluck defined for English-language learners

Examples of cluck in a Sentence

The hen clucked at her chicks.
The driver clucked at the horses to get them moving.
Commentators have been clucking over his lack of experience.

Recent Examples of cluck from the Web

Brooke and Steve Giannetti, designers and authors of Patina Farm, built a henhouse worth clucking about.

— natalie schumann, Country Living, "This Couple Built the Chicken Coop of Our Dreams and It's So Charming," 9 Mar. 2018
On her property on the outskirts of Accra, Ghana’s capital, Afrane’s poultry farm has three sheds where 1,700 chickens and roosters cluck, crow, and lay.

— stacey knott, The Christian Science Monitor, "In Ghana, a feminist push for fairer farming," 20 Dec. 2017
On a recent steamy summer morning, as chickens clucked and roosters crowed, German slipped on scuffed cowboy boots and started work at the construction site of a house down the road from his own.

— kate linthicum, latimes.com, "In Mexico, they made a new American dream — minus their kids," 1 Dec. 2017
The celebrations sometimes ruffle the feathers of players - especially pitchers - watching at home, and some fans and media will follow by clucking out some nonsense about respecting the game.

— ted berg, USA TODAY, "Let's just get mad about every home-run celebration," 1 Nov. 2017
This morning, speaking to the MSNBC Morning Zoo crew, Mark Meadows, Republican of North Carolina, and the leader of the Freedom Caucus mob in the House, clucked the office just as David Maurer defined it.

— charles p. pierce, Esquire, "You're Not Supposed to Say This Out Loud," 28 Sep. 2017
But once Ramadan ends, the brothers will once again return to the bubbling chainaki teapots, aging guests, and clucking chickens of Ka Forushi.

— maija liuhto, Longreads, "The Oldest Restaurant in Kabul: Where Tradition Trumps Rockets," 12 Sep. 2017
Dozens of chickens peck and cluck their way around an enclosure.

— peter marteka, courant.com, "Preserving Farmland And Woodlands In Simsbury," 10 Sep. 2017
Geese honk in their pens and chickens cluck out of sight.

— andrew cotto, New York Times, "An Old Fish Farm, but With Gourmet Takeout," 23 Aug. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'cluck.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.