duck
verb/dʌk/
/dʌk/
Verb Forms
Phrasal Verbs| present simple I / you / we / they duck | /dʌk/ /dʌk/ |
| he / she / it ducks | /dʌks/ /dʌks/ |
| past simple ducked | /dʌkt/ /dʌkt/ |
| past participle ducked | /dʌkt/ /dʌkt/ |
| -ing form ducking | /ˈdʌkɪŋ/ /ˈdʌkɪŋ/ |
- [intransitive, transitive] to move your head or body downwards to avoid being hit or seen
- He had to duck as he came through the door.
- duck (down) (behind/under something) We ducked down behind the wall so they wouldn't see us.
- He ducked under the overhanging branches.
- He just managed to duck out of sight.
- duck something She ducked her head and got into the car.
- She ducked under the railings and ran towards him.
- [transitive] duck something to avoid something by moving your head or body out of the way synonym dodge
- He ducked the first few blows then started to fight back.
- [intransitive] + adv./prep. to move somewhere quickly, especially in order to avoid being seen
- She ducked into the adjoining room as we came in.
- [intransitive, transitive] (rather informal) to avoid a difficult or unpleasant duty or responsibility
- duck out of something It's his turn to cook dinner, but I bet he'll try to duck out of it.
- duck something The government is ducking the issue.
- (especially North American English dunk)[transitive] duck somebody to push somebody underwater and hold them there for a short time
- The kids were ducking each other in the pool.
Word Originverb Middle English: of Germanic origin; related to Dutch duiken and German tauchen ‘dive, dip, plunge’, also to duck, the bird.
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duck