ruddy duck
ruddy duck noun: oxyura jamaicensis, a small stifftail duck, the male of which has a rust-coloured body.
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Noun
ruddy duck (plural ruddy ducks)
- Oxyura jamaicensis, a small stifftail duck, the male of which has a rust-coloured body.
- Except when migrating, the ruddy duck seldom flies.[…]If disturbed by a predator, the ruddy duck dives to escape.2004, Laurie E. Likoff, The Encyclopedia of Birds, volume 1, page 802
- Since hybridization with the ruddy duck could lead to extinction of the white-headed duck, Spain began to kill its ruddy ducks. Trials to eliminate ruddy ducks from the U.K. began in 1999, and were overseen by a euphemistically named White-headed Duck Task Force.2008, Roslyn M. Frank, Body, Language, and Mind: Sociocultural situatedness, volume 2, page 170
- Synonyms:
- sleepyhead
Synonyms of ruddy duck
Forms of ruddy duck
| plural | ruddy ducks |
|---|
Origin of ruddy duck
From ruddy (“reddish”) + duck, referring to the rust-coloured body of the male.
Questions about ruddy duck
- What does ruddy duck mean?
- Ruddy duck means oxyura jamaicensis, a small stifftail duck, the male of which has a rust-coloured body.
- What part of speech is ruddy duck?
- Ruddy duck is a noun.
- What is the plural of ruddy duck?
- The plural of ruddy duck is ruddy ducks.
Words near ruddy duck in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ruddy 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.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “ruddy duck.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ruddy_duck. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.