quack
/kwæk/ noun, verb, interjection, adjective
Forms quacks quacking quacked quacker quackest quaake
- noun The vocalisation made by a duck. “Did you hear that duck make a quack?”
- verb Of a duck, to make its characteristic vocalisation. “The more breadcrumbs I threw on the ground, the more they quacked.”
- verb To make a sound similar to the quack of a duck.
- verb (intransitive) Of a queen bee: to make a high-pitched sound during certain stages of development.
- interjection A duck's quack.
- noun (derogatory) A fraudulent healer, especially a bombastic peddler in worthless treatments, a doctor who makes false diagnoses for monetary benefit, or an untrained or poorly trained doctor who uses fraudulent credentials to attract patients “That doctor is nothing but a lousy quack!”
- noun (figuratively, derogatory) Any similar charlatan or incompetent professional.
- noun (humorous slang, mildly derogatory) Any doctor. “That quack wants me to quit smoking, eat less, and start exercising. The nerve!”
- verb To practice or commit quackery (fraudulent medicine).
- verb (obsolete) To make vain and loud pretensions.
- adjective Falsely presented as having medicinal powers. “Don't get your hopes up; that's quack medicine!”
Synonyms
snake-oil salesman medicaster quacksalver pharmacopole boast
Etymology
From Middle English *quacken, queken (“to croak like a frog; make a noise like a duck, goose, or quail”), from quack, qwacke, quek, queke (“quack”, interjection and noun), also kek, keke, whec-, partly of imitative origin and partly from Middle Dutch quacken (“to croak, quack”), from Old Dutch *kwaken (“to croak, quack”), from Proto-West Germanic *kwakōn, from Proto-Germanic *kwakaną, *kwakōną (“to croak”), of imitative origin. Cognate with Saterland Frisian kwoakje, kwaakje (“to quack”), Middle Low German quaken (“to quack, croak”), German quaken (“to quack, croak”), Danish kvække (“to croak”), Swedish kväka (“to croak, quackle”), Norwegian kvekke (“to croak”), Icelandic kvaka (“to twitter, chirp, quack”).
Clipping of quacksalver (see there for more), of Dutch origin; ultimately related to Etymology 1 above.
Webster’s 1913
- verb To utter a sound like the cry of a duck.
- verb To make vain and loud pretensions; to boast. " To quack of universal cures." Hudibras.
- noun The cry of the duck, or a sound in imitation of it; a hoarse, quacking noise. Chaucer.
- noun A boastful pretender to medical skill; an empiric; an ignorant practitioner.
Etymology [Of imitative origin; cf. D. kwaken, G. quacken, quaken, Icel. kvaka to twitter.]
Etymology [Cf. Quacksalver.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “quack”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details