Word.ws English Dictionary

Canuck

Syllables: Can·uckUK/kəˈnʌk/

Canuck noun: a Canadian person; specifically (archaic), a French Canadian person; a pea-souper; also (obsolete) a Canadian person of other non-English descent.

Noun

Canuck (plural Canucks)

  1. (Canada, US, derogatory, informal, sometimes) A Canadian person; specifically (archaic), a French Canadian person; a pea-souper; also (obsolete) a Canadian person of other non-English descent.
    • Canadians are somewhat jealous of the Americans; that they are secretly manœuvering, not exactly with the inoffensive good humor of a much respected yeoman of England, […] but rather after the inordinate example of Ahab of old, so pithily recorded by the sacred historian. Jonathan distinguishes a...[1835, [Henry Cook Todd], Notes upon Canada and the United States of America: In the Year MDCCCXXXV […], Toronto, Ont.: […] W[illiam] J[oseph] Coates, […], →OCLC, paragraph 263, page 92
    • We saw a few partridges: we also met a lusty fellow in a forest road with a keg of whisky slung round him, who called to us 'Come boys and have some grog, I'm what you call a canuck:' a (Canadian).1849, James E[dward] Alexander, chapter XV, in L’Acadie; or, Seven Years’ Explorations in British America. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, pages 272–273
    1. (Canada, US, derogatory, informal, sometimes) A member of the Vancouver Canucks professional ice hockey team belonging to the National Hockey League.
    2. (Canada, US, derogatory, informal, sometimes) Chiefly as Crazy Canuck: a member of the Canadian alpine ski team.
  2. (rare) A thing from Canada.
    • Wha'll buy my caller herrin'? / Cod, turbot, ling, delicious farin', / Buy my caller herrin', / They're every one Kanucks!1887 February 19, “Caller Herrin’. As Sung by a New Haven, N.S., Fishwife. (An American edition—copyrighted too.)”, in J[ohn] W[ilson] Bengough, editor, Grip. An Independent Journal of Humor and...
    1. (historical, rare) The Avro Canada CF-100 fighter-interceptor aircraft, in use between 1952 and 1981.
    2. (US, obsolete, rare) A Canadian horse or pony.
      • I'll sit here and blow till he comes round with his old go-cart, and then I'll hang on to the tail of it, and try legs with that little Kanuck of his.1860, J[osiah] G[ilbert] Holland, “Miss Gilbert Visits the Sky, and Little Venus Takes up Her Permanent Residence there”, in Miss Gilbert’s Career: An American Story, New York, N.Y.: Charles...
      • Forty years ago the States south of the French part of Canada procured a large number of horses from that country. These were popularly called "Canucks," and were distinguished from the horses of the country by strongly marked characteristics. […] The Canuck was thoroughly a Norman horse in all...1892 January 26, “The ‘Canuck’ horse”, in The Boston Weekly Globe, volume XX, number 4, Boston, Mass.: Globe Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 6, column 4

Proper noun

Canuck

  1. (historical, rare) Synonym of Canadian French (“the French language as spoken by Francophones in Canada”).
    • "Oh, monsieur, monsieur, ayez pitie de moi; je suis honnète et vous paierai dix fois autant." / "You blasted scoundrel that you are, I want none of your impertinence and Canuck lingo; go hunt up your dirty trash of hungry humbugs, that you shouldered upon me last evening.[…]"1866, Andrew Learmont Spedon, “Tale III. Adventures with Religious Impostors.”, in Canadian Summer Evening Tales, Montreal, Que.: […] John Lovell, […], →OCLC, pages 71–72
    • On the deacon-seat in the leapin' heat / With the corn-cobs drawin' cool and sweet, / And timin' the fiddle with tunkin' feet, / A hundred men and a chorus. / "Roule, roulant, ma boule roulant," / It 's all Canuck but a good old song; / Lift it up then, good and strong, / For a cozy night 's before...1904, Holman F[rancis] Day, “Kingdom o’ Spruce: Song of the Men o’ the Ax”, in Kin o’ Ktaadn: Verse Stories of the Plain Folk who are Keeping Bright the Old Home Fires up in Maine, Boston, Mass....
    Synonyms:
    Canadian French
  2. (slang) Synonym of Canadian English (“the variety of the English language used in Canada”).
    • "It is one ver' gran' night," I said in my dialect of the rude Canuck; for I did not wish him, or any one, to know me.1901 July 25, Irving Bacheller, chapter XXII, in D’ri and I: A Tale of Daring Deeds in the Second War with the British. […], Boston, Mass.: Lothrop Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 302

Adjective

Canuck (comparative more Canuck, superlative most Canuck)

  1. (derogatory, sometimes) Of, belonging to, or relating to Canada, its culture, or people; Canadian.
    • "I want none of your d—— peasoup excuses, or promises," and, calling upon the hostler, a fat-blooded Englishman, he ordered him to stable the horse immediately, and keep a sharp "look out" to that Canuck Frenchman.1866, Andrew Learmont Spedon, “Tale III. Adventures with Religious Impostors.”, in Canadian Summer Evening Tales, Montreal, Que.: […] John Lovell, […], →OCLC, page 71
    • It is well known that Canada, by the adoption of a protective tariff, shut out many of our American articles from the Canuck markets.1879 June 1, “Various topics”, in The Detroit Free Press, volume 44, number 242, Detroit, Mich.: The Detroit Free Press Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 4, column 3
    Antonyms:
    non-Canadian
  2. Of or relating to the Vancouver Canucks professional ice hockey team belonging to the National Hockey League.

Examples of Canuck in a sentence

  • But for pure and unadulterated brag I will back the lower-class Canuck against the world.1889, John G[eorge] Donkin, chapter XIII, in Trooper and Redskin in the Far North-West: Recollections of Life in the North-West Mounted...
  • [T]he Canucks were ready with bats, hands, feet and heads, to outplay the locals at all points.1895 August 26, “Sports of field and track: Toronto 14, Rochester 11—first game”, in Democrat and Chronicle, volume 63, number 238...
  • He's got a Canuck a-workin' for him, and I'd livser trust a wolf 'n one o' them pea-soupers.1898, Rowland E[vans] Robinson, “Forebodings of Storm”, in A Hero of Ticonderoga, Burlington, Vt.: Hobart J[oseph] Shanley & Co., →OCLC...
  • "No," said they most emphatically, "we're Canucks now."1907 May, Howard Angus Kennedy, “The Dry Patch”, in New Canada and the New Canadians, 2nd edition, London: Horace Marshall & Son, published...

Synonyms of Canuck

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of Canuck

Forms of Canuck

Noun
pluralCanucks
alternative formcanuck
alternative formCanack
alternative formCannack
alternative formCanuc
alternative formcanuc
alternative formCanuk
alternative formConuck
alternative formCunnuck
alternative formKanuck
alternative formKanuk
alternative formK'nuck
Adjective
comparativemore Canuck
superlativemost Canuck

Origin of Canuck

Origin uncertain, often hypothesized to derive from the name or speech of an early Canadian minority, later broadened to denote all Canadians: * Since 1975, many scholars have come to think the name is from Hawaiian kanaka (“man”), a self-appellation of indentured colonial canoemen and Hawaiian sailors working off the Pacific Northwest, Arctic, and New England coasts, from French canaque (“indigenous Melanesian inhabitant of New Caledonia, Kanak”); or, more likely, American whalers’ pidgin, then re-interpreted as Can(adian) + a suffix. (More below on that [specific] putative suffix.) Compare English Kanak and German Kanake. * Some dictionaries suggest it is derived from the first syllable of Canada, or its etymon Laurentian kanata (“village”), or a related word kanuchsa meaning “villager” in either Laurentian or another Iroquoian language; with the second syllable connected to Inuktitut inuk (“man; person”), from Chinook (“Aboriginal people of the U.S. Pacific Northwest”), or another First-Nation language ending like -oc, -uc, or -uq. * Fanciful and unlikely suggestions include German genug von Canada (literally “enough of Canada”) (allegedly uttered by German mercenaries during...

Words formed from Canuck

Words that rhyme with Canuck

39 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about Canuck

What does Canuck mean?
Canuck means a Canadian person; specifically (archaic), a French Canadian person; a pea-souper; also (obsolete) a Canadian person of other non-English descent.
How do you use Canuck in a sentence?
But for pure and unadulterated brag I will back the lower-class Canuck against the world.
What part of speech is Canuck?
Canuck can be a noun, a proper noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce Canuck?
Canuck is pronounced /kəˈnʌk/ (UK).
What is the plural of Canuck?
The plural of Canuck is Canucks.

Words near Canuck in the dictionary

  1. cantwomen
  2. canty
  3. Cantyre
  4. Cantys
  5. Cantú syndrome
  6. Canuck
  7. Canuckese
  8. Canuckiana
  9. Canuckistan
  10. Canuckistani
  11. Canuckistanian

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Canuck (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-ca-canuck.ogg.

Cite this entry: “Canuck.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/canuck. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.