cuckoo
IPA: kˈʌku
noun
- Any of various birds, of the family Cuculidae, 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).
- (slang) Someone who is crazy.
- Alternative form of coo-coo (“Barbadian food”) [The two-note vocalisation made by the male of the common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus), or imitation of this by a cuckoo clock.]
verb
- To make the call of a cuckoo.
- To repeat something incessantly.
- (UK, law enforcement) To take over the home of a vulnerable person for the purposes of carrying out organized crime in a concealed way.
adjective
- (slang) Crazy; not sane.
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Examples of "cuckoo" in Sentences
- Southern Slavs the cuckoo is supposed to be the sister of a murdered man ever calling or vengeance.
- The cuckoo is not to be seen on the furze; the leaves are withering and the trees complaining of the cold.
- We use consonants where the bird uses none, as when we give the name cuckoo to a bird whose cry is really "ooh, ooh."
- Some of his inventions are based on the technology used in cuckoo clocks, mechanical toys, piano rolls, and player pianos.
- But cuckoo is a very simple call? it could be that one of the reasons why it is such a simple call is precisely because of the phenomenon they describe.
- “The cuckoo is a pretty bird, she sings as she flies, she brings us good tidings and she tells us no lies” went the song, and Michael recalled that Mary Bright had sounded much sweeter than any bird when she sang that song.
- Known only by a handful of specimens collected over the past century, the Sumatran ground cuckoo is considered to be one of the worlds rarest, most secretive birds, and is restricted to Sumatras deep jungles and rainforests.
- The cuckoo is not asleep, the thrush is not asleep, the tops of the trees are a noisy place; the duck is not asleep, she is made ready for good swimming; the bog-lark is not asleep to-night on the high stormy bogs; the sound of her clear voice is sweet; she is not sleeping between the streams.
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