cuckoo
English · Thesaurus
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cuckoo¹
- /ˈkʊkuː/ UK
- /ˈkɵkʉw/ British, Southern, Standard
- /ˈkuku/ US
- /ˈkʉkʉ/ Northern Ireland, Scotland
Rhymes with -ʊkuː, -uːkuː
Where it comes from
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 (verb sense 3) is by analogy from the bird's practice of brood parasitism.
The Malaysian and Singaporean sense (noun sense 8) is a phono-semantic matching of Hokkien 咕咕鳥 /咕咕鸟 (ku-kú-chiáu)
noun 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.
- 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.
- Alternative form of coo-coo (Barbadian food).
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Alternative form of ku ku jiao (the penis)
Similar: cuckoo bird, ku ku bird
verb cuckoos · cuckooing · 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'.
-
To repeat something incessantly.
Similar: 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.
adjective more cuckoo · most cuckoo
- Crazy; not sane. I think I'm going cuckoo!
Cuckoo²
proper noun
- A locality in Dorset council area, north eastern Tasmania, Australia.
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: goose, jackass, fathead, zany, goof, ani, shrike, bird, rhododendron, nuts, peek-a-boo, flake, ahoy, sicko, psycho, madman
Translations
Every language
noun the bird
| Español | cuco, cuclillo, críalo |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 뻐꾸기 ppeokkugi, 두견새 dugyeonsae |
| 日本語 | 郭公 kakkō, カッコウ kakkō |
| 中文 | 杜鵑 /杜鹃 dùjuān, 布穀鳥 /布谷鸟 bùgǔniǎo |
| हिन्दी | कोयल koyal, कोकिला kokilā |
| Kiswahili | kekeo |
| Português | cuco |
| Français | coucou |
| Deutsch | Kuckuck |
| Italiano | cuculo, cucù |
| Ελληνικά | κούκος koúkos |
| Română | cuc |
| Русский | куку́шка kukúška |
| Tiếng Việt | chim cu, cu cu, cúc cu |
| العربية | وَقْوَاق waqwāq, وَقْوَاقِيَّة waqwāqiyya |
| עברית | קוּקִיָה kukiyá |
Talk about this word "cuckoo." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/cuckoo. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. cuckoo. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/cuckoo "cuckoo." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/cuckoo.Cite this
@misc{cuckoo_2026,
title = {cuckoo},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/cuckoo},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
