cuckoo
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Chestnut-breasted malkoha (Phaenicophaeus curvirostris)
English
Etymology
From Middle English cokkou, kokkow, cukkuk, gokkouȝ, probably from Old French cocu, coquu, cucu (whence French coucou); ultimately onomatopoeic of the song of the male Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus), perhaps via Latin cucūlus (“cuckoo”).
Compare dialectal English gowkoo (“cuckoo”). Displaced Middle English gnokken (“cuckoo”) and native Middle English yeke, ȝek (from Old English ġēac (“cuckoo”)), see English gowk.
The UK sense is by analogy from the bird's practice of brood parasitism.
Pronunciation
Noun
cuckoo (countable and uncountable, plural cuckoos)
- Any of various birds, of the family Cuculidae within the order Cuculiformes, famous for laying its eggs in the nests of other species; but especially a common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus), that has a characteristic two-note call.
- c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :
- He knows me, as the blind man knows the cuckoo, / By the bad voice.
- The sound of that particular bird.
- The bird-shaped figure found in cuckoo clocks.
- The cuckoo clock itself.
- A person who inveigles themselves into a place where they should not be (used especially in the phrase a cuckoo in the nest).
- (slang) Someone who is crazy.
- Alternative form of coo-coo (Barbadian food).
Derived terms
- African emerald cuckoo
- Asian emerald cuckoo
- black cuckoo-shrike
- brush cuckoo
- channel-bill cuckoo, channel-billed cuckoo
- cloud cuckoo land, cloud cuckoo-land, cloud-cuckoo-land
- cuckoo bee
- cuckoo bread, cuckoo-bread
- cuckoobud
- cuckoo catfish
- cuckoo clock
- cuckoo cry
- cuckoo-dove, cuckoo dove (Columbinae spp.)
- cuckoo-finch
- cuckooflower
- cuckoo hashing
- cuckoo-hawk
- cuckoo-pint, cuckoo pint (“Arum italicum”)
- cuckoo roller
- cuckoo's egg
- cuckoo shrike, cuckooshrike (Campephagidae spp.)
- cuckoo sign
- cuckoo spit
- cuckoo theory
- cuckoo wasp
- drongo cuckoo, drongo-cuckoo
- emerald cuckoo
- ground cuckoo
- hawk-cuckoo
- Jacobin cuckoo
- lesser cuckoo
- little bronze cuckoo
- mangrove cuckoo
- Maynard's cuckoo
- pallid cuckoo
- Philippine cuckoo-dove
- pied crested cuckoo
- pied cuckoo
- red-chested cuckoo
- rufous-vented ground-cuckoo
Related terms
- cuculine (rare)
Descendants
- → Welsh: cwcw
Translations
the bird
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the sound
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cuckoo clock — see also cuckoo clock
|
someone crazy — see also crazy
Verb
cuckoo (third-person singular simple present cuckoos, present participle cuckooing, simple past and past participle cuckooed)
- To make the call of a cuckoo.
- 1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 174:
- Switzerland is the home of many musical toys and here were carved whistles in the shapes of birds. These cuckooed realistically when blown into, with the beak opening and shutting, and the tail moving up and down to produce the 'cuck' and the 'oooh'.
- To repeat something incessantly. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
- Synonym: parrot
- (UK, law enforcement) To take over the home of a vulnerable person for the purposes of carrying out organized crime in a concealed way.
- 2023, Sally Wainwright, 26:06 from the start, in Happy Valley, season 3, episode 2, spoken by Catherine Cawood (Sarah Lancashire):
- She'll have been cuckooed. That'll be the Knezevics. They can't launder fast enough, so what do you do with it? Where do you put it? You hide it in somebody else's place; somebody who han't got a clue what's going on and couldn't do a fat lot about it if they did.
Translations
to make the call of a cuckoo
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to repeat something incessantly
Adjective
cuckoo (comparative more cuckoo, superlative most cuckoo)