clucking

Verb

cluck (third-person singular simple present clucks, present participle clucking, simple past and past participle clucked)

1. (intransitive) To make low clicking sounds (refers to hens).
   • "I came across him once," he continued, "when he was playing down on the main road to Skaug; there he sat in the middle of the road with a lot of hens around him, I counted seven, and there were more round about in the wood, for I heard them clucking and calling behind every bush."1886, Peter Christen Asbjø￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 72

   Synonyms:

   chuck

2. (transitive) To cause (the tongue) to make a clicking sound.
   • My mother clucked her tongue in disapproval.
3. To call together, or call to follow, as a hen does her chickens.
   • When she, poor hen, fond of no second brood,
     Has clucked thee to the wars and safely home.c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
4. (UK, drug slang) To suffer withdrawal from heroin.

See all 9 meanings of cluck