Word.ws English Dictionary

quack like a duck

quack like a duck verb: to appear to be exactly what one is.

Verb

quack like a duck (third-person singular simple present quacks like a duck, present participle quacking like a duck, simple past and past participle quacked like a duck)

  1. (simile) To appear to be exactly what one is.
    • If it quacks like a duck, it's a duck.
    • If you quack like a duck, then you must be a duck. If you are functioning like a local body, then you must be one.2000 February 1, “From the Electoral College”, in Agapé, volume 2, number 4, page 2

Forms of quack like a duck

third-person singular presentquacks like a duck
present participlequacking like a duck
past participlequacked like a duck
pastquacked like a duck

Questions about quack like a duck

What does quack like a duck mean?
Quack like a duck means to appear to be exactly what one is.
What part of speech is quack like a duck?
Quack like a duck is a verb.
What is the past tense of quack like a duck?
The past tense of quack like a duck is quacked like a duck.

Words near quack like a duck in the dictionary

  1. quachils
  2. quachtli
  3. quachtlis
  4. quack
  5. quack grass
  6. quack like a duck
  7. quack-breech
  8. quack-breeches
  9. quack-grass
  10. quack-salver
  11. quack-salvers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: quack like a duck (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-quack like a duck.ogg.

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