CUCKOO

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does cuckoo mean? 

• CUCKOO (noun)
  The noun CUCKOO has 2 senses:

1. a man who is a stupid incompetent fool

2. any of numerous European and North American birds having pointed wings and a long tail

  Familiarity information: CUCKOO used as a noun is rare.

• CUCKOO (verb)
  The verb CUCKOO has 1 sense:

1. repeat monotonously, like a cuckoo repeats his call

  Familiarity information: CUCKOO used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CUCKOO (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A man who is a stupid incompetent fool

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

bozo; cuckoo; fathead; goof; goofball; goose; jackass; twat; zany

Hypernyms ("cuckoo" is a kind of...):

fool; muggins; sap; saphead; tomfool (a person who lacks good judgment)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Any of numerous European and North American birds having pointed wings and a long tail

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("cuckoo" is a kind of...):

cuculiform bird (birds having zygodactyl feet (except for the touracos))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "cuckoo"):

Cuculus canorus; European cuckoo (common cuckoo of Europe having a distinctive two-note call; lays eggs in the nests of other birds)

black-billed cuckoo; Coccyzus erythropthalmus (North American cuckoo; builds a nest and rears its own young)

chaparral cock; Geococcyx californianus; roadrunner (speedy largely terrestrial bird found from California and Mexico to Texas)

ani (black tropical American cuckoo)

coucal (Old World ground-living cuckoo having a long dagger-like hind claw)

Holonyms ("cuckoo" is a member of...):

Cuculidae; family Cuculidae (includes cuckoo; ani; roadrunner)

Derivation:

cuckoo (repeat monotonously, like a cuckoo repeats his call)

• CUCKOO (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they cuckoo    ... he / she / it cuckoos   
Past simple: cuckooed   
Past participle: cuckooed   
-ing form: cuckooing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Repeat monotonously, like a cuckoo repeats his call

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "cuckoo" is one way to...):

echo; repeat (to say again or imitate)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

cuckoo (any of numerous European and North American birds having pointed wings and a long tail)

 Context examples 

Like a cuckoo, it lays its eggs in the nests of other birds, and its chick hatches equipped with sharp hooks at the tips of its beak.

(How humans and wild Honeyguide birds call each other to help, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

It happened in the August of ’99, or it may have been in the early days of September; but I remember that we heard the cuckoo in Patcham Wood, and that Jim said that perhaps it was the last of him.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)