quack

Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary

Contents 1 English 1.1 Pronunciation 1.2 Etymology 1 1.2.1 Noun 1.2.1.1 Translations 1.2.2 Verb 1.2.2.1 Derived terms 1.2.2.2 Translations 1.3 Etymology 2 1.3.1 Noun 1.3.1.1 Quotations 1.3.1.2 Synonyms 1.3.1.3 Translations 1.3.2 Verb 1.3.2.1 Translations 1.3.3 Adjective

[edit] English

[edit] Pronunciation

• IPA: /kwæk/
•  Audio (US)^{help, file}
• Rhymes: -æk

[edit] Etymology 1

Onomatopoeic.

[edit] Noun

quack (plural quacks)

1. The sound made by a duck.

   Did you hear that duck make a quack?

[edit] Translations

[edit] Verb

to quack (third-person singular simple present quacks, present participle quacking, simple past and past participle quacked)

1. To make a noise like a duck.

   The more breadcrumbs I threw on the ground, the more they quacked.

   Do you hear the ducks quack?

[edit] Derived terms

• quack like a duck‎

[edit] Translations

[edit] Etymology 2

Wikipedia

shortening of Quack-salver (Quack-saluer), from Middle Dutch kwaksalver (modern kwakzalver), literally "hawker of salve", itself from quacken "to brag, boast, (literally) croak" + zalf "salve"

[edit] Noun

quack (plural quacks)

1. A fraudulent healer or incompetent doctor of medicine, an impostor who claims to have qualifications to practice medicine.

   That doctor is nothing but a lousy quack!

2. A charlatan.
3. (slang) A doctor.

[edit] Quotations

• 1662: Rump: or an Exact Collection of the Choycest Poems and Songs Relating to Late Times, Vol. II, by ‘the most Eminent Wits’

  Tis hard to say, how much these Arse-wormes do urge us, We now need no Quack but these Jacks for to purge us, [...]

• 1720: William Derham, Physico-theology

  After ſome Months, the Quack gets privately to Town, [...]

• 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 2, ch. 8, The Electon

  ‘if we are ourselves valets, there shall ‘exist no hero for us; we shall not know the hero when we see him;’ - we shall take the quack for a hero; and cry, audibly through all ballot-boxes and machinery whatsoever, Thou art he; be thou King over us!

[edit] Synonyms

• See also Wikisaurus:deceiver

[edit] Translations

[edit] Verb

to quack (third-person singular simple present quacks, present participle quacking, simple past and past participle quacked)

1. To practice, commit quackery.

[edit] Translations

• Dutch: kwakzalveren

[edit] Adjective

quack (not comparable)

1. falsely presented as having medicinal powers.

   Don't get your hopes up; that's quack medicine!