cluck

Etymology

From Middle English clokken, clocken, from Old English cloccian (“to cluck, make a noise”), from Proto-Germanic *klukkwōną (“to make a sound, cluck”), of imitative origin. Cognate with Scots clok, clock (“to cluck”), Dutch klokken (“to cluck”), Low German klucken (“to cluck”), German glucken (“to cluck”), Danish klukke (“to cluck”), Swedish klucka (“to cluck”), Icelandic klökkva (“to sob, whine, cluck”).

noun

1. The sound made by a hen, especially when brooding, or calling her chicks.
2. Any sound similar to this.
3. A kind of tongue click used to urge on a horse.

verb

1. (intransitive) To make such a sound.
   "I came across him once," he continued, "when he was playing down on the main road to Skaug; there he sat in the middle of the road with a lot of hens around him, I counted seven, and there were more round about in the wood, for I heard them clucking and calling behind every bush." 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 72
2. (transitive) To cause (the tongue) to make a clicking sound.
   My mother clucked her tongue in disapproval.
3. To call together, or call to follow, as a hen does her chickens.
4. (Britain, drug slang) to suffer withdrawal from heroin.