cluck (kluk)

[Also dial. clutch; earlier usually clock (see clock1 ); It. chiocciare, crocciare = Sp. clocar, cloquear, coclear = Pr. cloquiar = OF. cloucer, gloucer, later glo er, glou er, F. glou er ), cluck as a hen (cf. It. chioccia = Sp. clueca = MLG. klucke = MHG. klucke, G. klucke, glucke, a broodE. cleck1, cleck2, cluck), = ing hen. dialekt, hatcheck croak as a jackdaw, groan in disapprobation; Hind. kurkurāna, cluck, cackle, mürmur: all imitative words, more or le le varied, which may be compared, as to form, with chuck1, click1, clack, crake, croak, cock1.] I. in trans. To utter the call or cry of a brooding hen or a hen with young chicks. The lines were only a part of the sound of his wife's tongue, distracting him no more than the clucking of the maternal hens about the house. W. M. Baker, New Timothy, p. 56. II. trans. To call or incite by clucking, as a hen her chicks. When she (poor hen!), fond of no second brood, Has cluck'd thee to the wars. Shak ., Cor., v. 3. cluck (kluk), [ one in an intricate case; a guide or key to the MLG. solution of a puzzle or problem, or the unravel- ing of a plot or mystery: in allusion to the mythological story that These us was guided by a clue of thread through the Cretan laby- rinth. They are only to be understood and traced by the clue Bacon , Political Fables, x., Expl. of experience. This clue will unravel what otherwise would seem very inconsistent in my father's domestic character. Sterne, Tristram Shandy, v. 3. 4. A measure of yarn or hemp, 4,800 yards.5. Naut., a lower corner of a square sail or the aftmost corner of a fore-and-aft sail.- Clues of a hammock, the combination of small lines by which it is suspended. From clue to earing ( naut. ), from the bottom to the top; from one end to the other; throughout; entirely. clue, clew (klö), v. t.; pret. and pp. clued, clewed, ppr. cluing, clewing. [ "Here comes Cape Horn!" said the chief mate; and we had hardly time to haul down and clew up before it was upon us. R. H. Dana , Jr. , Before the Mast, p. 28. 2. To direct, as by a clue or thread. Beau . and Fl . clue-garnet (klö'gärnet), n. Naut., a purchase, consisting of two single blocks and a fall, by which the lower corner of a square mainsail or foresail is hauled up to the yard. clue-iron (klö'i"èrn), n. Naut ., a shackle-shaped iron at the clues of large sails. The leech-rope and foot-rope of the sails are spliced into eyes in the clueiron, and the tacks and sheets secured to it. clue-jigger (klö'jig"ėr), n. Naut., a small purchase for tricing up the corners of topsails and courses forward of the yards, so that the sails may be easily furled. clue-line (klo'lin; colloq. klöʻlin), n. Naut., a purchase or single rope for hauling up to the yards the clues of topsails, topgallant sails, and rolum), n. and a. [Early mod. E. clumme, Ayenbite of Inwyt , p. 266. IMG:content-0661.png:[blocks in formation] broody, or in calling her chicks.-2. Same as click1, 2. Some in their gripyng tallants clum a ball of bra e. A Herring's Tayle , 1598. clucking-hen (kluk'ing-hen), n. A name in clumbent. Obsolete strong preterit plural of Jamaica of the crying-bird, carau, or limpkin, Aramus pictus.