Duck /(dŭk)/

Duck

A linen (or sometimes cotton) fabric, finer and lighter than canvas, -- used for the lighter sails of vessels, the sacking of beds, and sometimes for men's clothing.
The light clothes worn by sailors in hot climates. (Naut.) [Colloq.]

v. t.

imp. & p. p. Ducked; p. pr. & vb. n. Ducking

To thrust or plunge under water or other liquid and suddenly withdraw.
Adams, after ducking the squire twice or thrice, leaped out of the tub.
— Fielding.
To plunge the head of under water, immediately withdrawing it; as, duck the boy.
To bow; to bob down; to move quickly with a downward motion.

v. i.

To go under the surface of water and immediately reappear; to dive; to plunge the head in water or other liquid; to dip.
In Tiber ducking thrice by break of day.
— Dryden.
To drop the head or person suddenly; to bow.
The learned pate Ducks to the golden fool.
— Shak.

Any bird of the subfamily Anatinæ, family Anatidæ. (Zool.)
A sudden inclination of the bead or dropping of the person, resembling the motion of a duck in water.
Here be, without duck or nod, Other trippings to be trod.
— Milton.

Bombay duck: a fish. See Bummalo.
Buffel duck: See Buffel duck.
Duck ant: a species of white ant in Jamaica which builds large nests in trees.
Duck barnacle: See Goose barnacle.
Duck hawk: In the United States: The peregrine falcon.
Duck mole: a small aquatic mammal of Australia, having webbed feet and a bill resembling that of a duck (Ornithorhynchus anatinus). It belongs the subclass Monotremata and is remarkable for laying eggs like a bird or reptile; -- called also duckbill, platypus, mallangong, mullingong, tambreet, and water mole.
To make ducks and drakes: to throw a flat stone obliquely, so as to make it rebound repeatedly from the surface of the water, raising a succession of jets<-- = skipping stones -->
To play at ducks and drakes: to throw it away heedlessly or squander it foolishly and unprofitably.
Lame duck: See under Lame.