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Webster 1913 Edition

Quack

Quack

,
Verb.
I.
[
imp. & p. p.
Qvacked
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Quacking
.]
[Of imitative origin; cf. D.
kwaken
, G.
quacken
,
quaken
, Icel.
kvaka
to twitter.]
1.
To utter a sound like the cry of a duck.
2.
To make vain and loud pretensions; to boast.
“ To quack of universal cures.”
Hudibras.
3.
To act the part of a quack, or pretender.

Quack

,
Noun.
1.
The cry of the duck, or a sound in imitation of it; a hoarse, quacking noise.
Chaucer.
2.
[Cf.
Quacksalver
.]
A boastful pretender to medical skill; an empiric; an ignorant practitioner.
3.
Hence, one who boastfully pretends to skill or knowledge of any kind not possessed; a charlatan.
Quacks
political;
quacks
scientific, academical.
Carlyle.

Quack

,
Adj.
Pertaining to or characterized by, boasting and pretension; used by quacks; pretending to cure diseases;
as, a
quack
medicine; a
quack
doctor.

Webster 1828 Edition

Quack

QUACK

, v.i.
1.
To cry like a duck or goose.
2.
To boast; to bounce; to talk noisily and ostentatiously; as, pretenders to medical skill quack of their cures.

QUACK

,
Noun.
[from the verb.]
1.
A boaster; one who pretends to skill or knowledge which he does not possess.
2.
A boastful pretender to medical skill which he does not possess; an empiric; an ignorant practitioner.

Definition 2024

quack

quack

English

Noun

quack ‎(plural quacks)

  1. The sound made by a duck.
    Did you hear that duck make a quack?
Translations

Verb

quack ‎(third-person singular simple present quacks, present participle quacking, simple past and past participle quacked)

  1. To make a noise like a duck.
    The more breadcrumbs I threw on the ground, the more they quacked.
    Do you hear the ducks quack?
Derived terms
  • quack like a duck‎
Translations

References

  1. ↑ Robert E. Lewis, Middle English dictionary, Volume 8, queke.

Etymology 2

c 1630, shortening of quacksalver, from Middle Dutch kwaksalver ‎(“hawker of salve”) (Dutch kwakzalver), from quacken ‎(“to brag, boast; to croak”)

Noun

quack ‎(plural quacks)

  1. A fraudulent healer or incompetent professional, especially a doctor of medicine; an impostor who claims to have qualifications to practice medicine.
    • That doctor is nothing but a lousy quack!
      Polly (to security guard, referring to Dr. Feingarten): Are you going to let that shyster in there?
      Dr. Feingarten: I could sue you, Polly. A shyster is a disreputable lawyer. I'm a quack.
      - From the motion picture SOB
    • 1662: Rump: or an Exact Collection of the Choycest Poems and Songs Relating to Late Times, Vol. II, by ‘the most Eminent Wits’
      Tis hard to say, how much these Arse-wormes do urge us, We now need no Quack but these Jacks for to purge us, [...]
    • 1720: William Derham, Physico-theology
      After ſome Months, the Quack gets privately to Town, [...]
    • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 2, ch. 8, The Electon
      ‘if we are ourselves valets, there shall ‘exist no hero for us; we shall not know the hero when we see him;’ - we shall take the quack for a hero; and cry, audibly through all ballot-boxes and machinery whatsoever, Thou art he; be thou King over us!
  2. A charlatan.
  3. (slang) A doctor.
Synonyms
  • See also Wikisaurus:deceiver
Derived terms
Translations

Verb

quack ‎(third-person singular simple present quacks, present participle quacking, simple past and past participle quacked)

  1. To practice or commit quackery.
  2. (obsolete) To make vain and loud pretensions; to boast.
    • Hudibras
      To quack of universal cures.
Translations

Adjective

quack ‎(not comparable)

  1. falsely presented as having medicinal powers.
    Don't get your hopes up; that's quack medicine!
Translations

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-Germanic *kwakaną, *kwakōną ‎(“to croak”), of imitative origin.[1] 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”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /kwæk/
  • Rhymes: -æk

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