cuckoo

From Middle English cokkou, probably from Old French cucu (whence French coucou); ultimately onomatopoeic of the song of the male Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus), perhaps via Latin cucūlus (“cuckoo”). Displaced native Old English ġēac (> modern dialect yek (“cuckoo”)).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkʊk.uː/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkuː.kuː/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʊkuː, -uːkuː
• Hyphenation: cuc‧koo

cuckoo (countable and uncountable, plural cuckoos)

1. Any of various birds, of the family Cuculidae, 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.
   • 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] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act V, scene i]:

     He knows me, as the blind man knows the cuckoo, / By the bad voice.

2. The sound of that particular bird.
3. The bird-shaped figure found in cuckoo clocks.
4. The cuckoo clock itself.
5. A person who inveigles themselves into a place where they should not be (used especially in the phrase a cuckoo in the nest).
6. (slang) Someone who is crazy.
7. Alternative form of coo-coo (“Barbadian food”)

• cuculine (rare)

cuckoo (third-person singular simple present cuckoos, present participle cuckooing, simple past and past participle cuckooed)

1. To make the call of a cuckoo.
2. To repeat something incessantly. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

   Synonym: parrot

cuckoo (comparative more cuckoo, superlative most cuckoo)

1. (slang) Crazy; not sane.

   I think I'm going cuckoo!

• cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs
• cuckooness