English edit

 
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Etymology edit

From Middle English cokkou, probably from Old French cucu (whence French coucou); ultimately onomatopoeic of the song of the male Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus), perhaps via Latin cucūlus (cuckoo). Displaced native Old English ġēac (Middle English yek (cuckoo)).

Pronunciation edit

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈkʊk.uː/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈkuː.kuː/
    • (file)
  • Rhymes: -ʊkuː, -uːkuː
  • Hyphenation: cuc‧koo

Noun edit

cuckoo (countable and uncountable, plural cuckoos)

  1. Any of various birds, of the family Cuculidae, 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.
  2. The sound of that particular bird.
  3. The bird-shaped figure found in cuckoo clocks.
  4. The cuckoo clock itself.
  5. A person who inveigles themselves into a place where they should not be (used especially in the phrase a cuckoo in the nest).
  6. (slang) Someone who is crazy.
  7. Alternative form of coo-coo (Barbadian food)

Derived terms edit

Related terms edit

Translations edit

Verb edit

cuckoo (third-person singular simple present cuckoos, present participle cuckooing, simple past and past participle cuckooed)

  1. To make the call of a cuckoo.
  2. To repeat something incessantly. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
    Synonym: parrot
  3. (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 edit

Adjective edit

cuckoo (comparative more cuckoo, superlative most cuckoo)

  1. (slang) Crazy; not sane.
    I think I'm going cuckoo!

Derived terms edit