cuckoo
Plural: cuckoos
Noun
- a man who is a stupid incompetent fool
- any of numerous European and North American birds having pointed wings and a long tail
- Any of various birds, of the family Cuculidae within the order Cuculiformes, 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.
- The sound of that particular bird.
- The bird-shaped figure found in cuckoo clocks.
- The cuckoo clock itself.
- A person who inveigles themselves into a place where they should not be (used especially in the phrase a cuckoo in the nest).
- Someone who is crazy.
- Alternative form of coo-coo (Barbadian food).
Verb
Verb Forms: cuckooed, cuckooing, cuckoos
- To repeat a sound or phrase monotonously.
- repeat monotonously, like a cuckoo repeats his call
- To make the call of a cuckoo.
- To repeat something incessantly.
- To take over the home of a vulnerable person for the purposes of carrying out organized crime in a concealed way.
Adj
- Crazy; not sane.
Examples
- He tried not to CUCKOO the same short words, aiming for more complex, high-value plays.
- I think I'm going cuckoo!
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English cokkou, kokkow, cukkuk, gokkouȝ, probably from Old French cocu, coquu, cucu (whence French coucou); ultimately onomatopoeic of the song of the male Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus), perhaps via Latin cucūlus (“cuckoo”).
Compare dialectal English gowkoo (“cuckoo”). Displaced Middle English gnokken (“cuckoo”) and native Middle English yeke, ȝek (from Old English ġēac (“cuckoo”)), see English gowk.
The UK sense is by analogy from the bird's practice of brood parasitism.
Scrabble Score: 14
cuckoo: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordcuckoo: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
cuckoo: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary