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Quack
Definitions
- 1 Falsely presented as having medicinal powers.
"Don't get your hopes up; that's quack medicine!"
- 1 medically unqualified wordnet
- 1 A duck's quack.
- 1 The sound made by a duck.
"Did you hear that duck make a quack?"
- 2 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 derogatory
"That doctor is nothing but a lousy quack!"
- 3 the harsh sound of a duck wordnet
- 4 Any similar charlatan or incompetent professional. derogatory, figuratively
"The very quaik of faſhions, the very hee that / VVeares a Steletto on his chinne."
- 5 an untrained person who pretends to be a physician and who dispenses medical advice wordnet
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- 6 Any doctor. derogatory, humorous, mildly, slang
"That quack wants me to quit smoking, eat less, and start exercising. The nerve!"
- 1 To make a noise like a duck.
"The more breadcrumbs I threw on the ground, the more they quacked."
- 2 To practice or commit quackery (fraudulent medicine).
"[…] it is incredible, and scarce to be imagin’d, how the Posts of Houses, and Corners of Streets were plaster’d over with Doctors Bills, and Papers of ignorant Fellows; quacking and tampering in Physick, and inviting the People to come to them for Remedies;"
- 3 act as a medical quack or a charlatan wordnet
- 4 Of a queen bee: to make a high-pitched sound during certain stages of development. intransitive
- 5 To make vain and loud pretensions. obsolete
"Seek out for Plants with Signatures To Quack of Universal Cures"
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- 6 utter quacking noises wordnet
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”).
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”).
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.
Clipping of quacksalver (see there for more), of Dutch origin; ultimately related to Etymology 1 above.
Clipping of quacksalver (see there for more), of Dutch origin; ultimately related to Etymology 1 above.
See also for "quack"
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