cuckoo
Syllables: cuc·kooUK/ˈkʊkuː/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
British/ˈkɵkʉw/
cuckoo noun: 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. Also the alternative form of coo-coo.
Noun
cuckoo (countable and uncountable, plural cuckoos)
- 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.
- He knows me, as the blind man knows the cuckoo,
By the bad voice.c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]... - At dawn they fly away, none knows whither. On the eve of the death of any other Tanville-Tankerton, comes (no matter what be the time of year) a cuckoo. It stays for an hour, cooing, then flies away, none knows whither. Whenever this portent occurs, my steward telegraphs to me, that I, as head of...1911 October 26, Max Beerbohm, Zuleika Dobson, or, An Oxford Love Story, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: John Lane Company, published 1912, →OCLC
- He knows me, as the blind man knows the cuckoo,
- 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.
Verb
cuckoo (third-person singular simple present cuckoos, present participle cuckooing, simple past and past participle cuckooed)
- To make the call of a cuckoo.
- Switzerland is the home of many musical toys and here were carved whistles in the shapes of birds. These cuckooed realistically when blown into, with the beak opening and shutting, and the tail moving up and down to produce the 'cuck' and the 'oooh'.1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 174
- To repeat something incessantly.
- Synonyms:
- parrot
- To take over the home of a vulnerable person for the purposes of carrying out organized crime in a concealed way.
- She'll have been cuckooed. That'll be the Knezevics. They can't launder fast enough, so what do you do with it? Where do you put it? You hide it in somebody else's place; somebody who han't got a clue what's going on and couldn't do a fat lot about it if they did.2023, Sally Wainwright, 26:06 from the start, in Happy Valley, season 3, episode 2, spoken by Catherine Cawood (Sarah Lancashire)
Adjective
cuckoo (comparative more cuckoo, superlative most cuckoo)
Proper noun capitalized: Cuckoo
Cuckoo
Also used as
cuckoo is also the alternative form of coo-coo.
cuckoo is also the alternative form of ku ku jiao.
cuckoo meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Telugu
cuckoo in Hindi
- the bird
- कोयल koyal, कोकिला kokilā
- the sound
- कूकू kūkū
cuckoo in Tamil
- the bird
- குயில் kuyil
- to make the call of a cuckoo
- கூவு kūvu
cuckoo in Urdu
- the bird
- کویل koyal
cuckoo in Telugu
- the bird
- కోకిల kōkila
More languagesFewer languages
- cuckoo in Malayalam
- കുയിൽ kuyil, കോകിലം kōkilaṁ
- cuckoo in Sanskrit
- कोकिल kokila
- cuckoo in Tagalog
- kakok
- cuckoo in Arabic
- وَقْوَاق waqwāq, وَقْوَاقِيَّة waqwāqiyya
- cuckoo in Persian
- کوکو kuku
- cuckoo in Vietnamese
- chim cu, cu cu, cúc cu
Examples of cuckoo in a sentence
- That sound is the distinctive call of the cuckoo bird.
- "Strike me blind with a horsefeather and let the cuckoo bird eat out my brain!
- The male cuckoo is dark in colour, while its female is speckled (called the Gomara Koha).
Synonyms of cuckoo
- cuckoo bird
- ku ku bird
- parrot
Forms of cuckoo
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | cuckoos |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | cuckoos |
| present participle | cuckooing |
| past participle | cuckooed |
| past | cuckooed |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more cuckoo |
| superlative | most cuckoo |
Origin of cuckoo
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. The Malaysian and Singaporean sense is a calque of Hokkien 咕咕鳥 /咕咕鸟 (ku-kú-chiáu)
Words formed from cuckoo
- cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs
- cuckooness
- African emerald cuckoo
- Asian emerald cuckoo
- black-billed cuckoo
- black cuckoo-shrike
- brush cuckoo
- channel-bill cuckoo
- channel-billed cuckoo
- cloud cuckoo land
- cloud cuckoo-land
- cloud-cuckoo-land
- cuckoo bee
- cuckoo bread
- cuckoo-bread
- cuckoobud
- cuckoo catfish
- cuckoo clock
- cuckoo cry
- cuckoo-dove
- cuckoo dove
- cuckoo-finch
- cuckooflower
- cuckoo hashing
- cuckoo-hawk
- cuckoo-pint
- cuckoo pint
- cuckoo-roller
- cuckoo's egg
- cuckoo shrike
- cuckooshrike
- cuckoo sign
- cuckoo spit
- cuckoo-spittle
- cuckoo theory
- cuckoo wasp
- drongo cuckoo
- drongo-cuckoo
- emerald cuckoo
- ground cuckoo
- hawk-cuckoo
- Jacobin cuckoo
- lesser cuckoo
- little bronze cuckoo
- long-tailed cuckoo
- mangrove cuckoo
- Maynard's cuckoo
- pallid cuckoo
- Philippine cuckoo-dove
- pied crested cuckoo
- pied cuckoo
- red-chested cuckoo
- rufous-vented ground-cuckoo
- yellow-billed cuckoo
Phrases with cuckoo
Words that rhyme with cuckoo
Questions about cuckoo
- What does cuckoo mean?
- Cuckoo means 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.
- What is cuckoo in Hindi?
- Cuckoo in Hindi is कोयल (koyal), कोकिला (kokilā), कूकू (kūkū). See Cuckoo meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is cuckoo?
- Cuckoo can be a noun, a verb, an adjective or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce cuckoo?
- Cuckoo is pronounced /ˈkʊkuː/ (UK).
- What is the plural of cuckoo?
- The plural of cuckoo is cuckoos.
Words near cuckoo in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: cuckoo (page history and authors); Cuckoo (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-us-cuckoo.ogg.
Cite this entry: “cuckoo.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cuckoo. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.