Join free

shuck

English · Thesaurus

AI In plain words

Writing a short explanation…

Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.

shuck¹

  • /ʃʌk/
  • /ʃʊk/ Ireland, Northern England

Sounds like shook (without the foot–strut split) · Rhymes with -ʌk

Where it comes from

Origin unknown. Possibly a dialectal survival of unrecorded Middle English *schulk(e), *schullok (“small shell”); either from Old English *sċylluc, *sċylloc, diminutive of Old English sċyll (“shell”), or alternatively created in Middle English from Middle English schulle, schelle (“shell, husk, pod”) + -ok, making it equivalent to shell + -ock (diminutive suffix) or shell + -k (diminutive suffix).

noun shucks · shock

  1. The shell or husk, especially of grains (e.g. corn/maize) or nuts (e.g. walnuts). There was no linen, no pillow, and when she touched the mattress it gave forth the faint dry whisper of shucks.
  2. slang A fraud; a scam.
  3. slang A phony.

verb shucks · shucking · shucked · shock

  1. transitive To remove the shuck from (walnuts, oysters, etc.). Shall we shuck walnuts?
  2. transitive To remove (any outer covering). I will shuck my clothes and dive naked into the pool.
  3. slang, transitive To remove (an external hard drive or solid-state drive) from its casing so that it can be used inside another device.
  4. intransitive, slang, transitive To fool; to hoax.

shuck²

  • /ʃʌk/
  • /ʃʊk/ Ireland, Northern England

Sounds like shook (without the foot–strut split) · Rhymes with -ʌk

Where it comes from

From a dialectal variant of shock.

verb shucks · shucking · shucked

  1. dialectal To shake; shiver.
  2. dialectal To slither or slip, move about, wriggle.
  3. dialectal To do hurriedly or in a restless way.
  4. dialectal To avoid; baffle, outwit, shirk.
  5. dialectal, of a horse To walk at a slow trot.

shuck³

  • /ʃʌk/
  • /ʃʊk/ Ireland, Northern England

Sounds like shook (without the foot–strut split) · Rhymes with -ʌk

Where it comes from

Possibly from Middle English shucke, schucke (“demon, monster”), from Old English sċucca (“an evil spirit”).

noun shucks

  1. European A supernatural and generally malevolent black dog in English folklore.

    Similar: padfoot, shriker

Shuck⁴

Where it comes from

* As an English surname, from Old English scucca (“evil spirit”).

* As a German andJewish surname, Americanized from Schuck.

proper noun Shucks

  1. A surname.

Translations

Every language

verb to remove the shuck from

Españoldescascar, descascarar, descascarillar, mondar, desconchar
Françaisdécortiquer, écailler, écosser
Русскийочищать očiščatʹ

Talk about this word

Cite this
MLA

"shuck." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/shuck. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

shuck. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/shuck

Chicago

"shuck." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/shuck.

BibTeX
@misc{shuck_2026,
  title = {shuck},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/shuck},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}