cuckoo

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cuckoo

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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 (Middle English ȝek (“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, [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.
   • 1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 174:

     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'.

2. To repeat something incessantly. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

   Synonym: parrot

3. (UK, law enforcement) To take over the home of a vulnerable person for the purposes of carrying out organized crime in a concealed way.
   • 2023, Sally Wainwright, 26:06 from the start, in Happy Valley, season 3, episode 2, spoken by Catherine Cawood (Sarah Lancashire):

     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.

cuckoo (comparative more cuckoo, superlative most cuckoo)

1. (slang) Crazy; not sane.

   I think I'm going cuckoo!

• cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs
• cuckooness