cluck one's tongue

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English

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Verb

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cluck one's tongue (third-person singular simple present clucks one's tongue, present participle clucking one's tongue, simple past and past participle clucked one's tongue)

  1. To click one's tongue.
    • 1906, John Galsworthy, The Forsyte Saga[1], Volume I, Chapter:
      The spring had got into his blood, too; he felt the need for letting steam escape, and clucked his tongue, flourishing his whip, wheeling his horses []
    • 1926, Nevil Shute, chapter 1, in Marazan[2]:
      I went out and had a chat with the foreman of the men; he clucked his tongue when he heard what had happened, and opined that I was lucky to have come off so lightly with nobody there to help me out of the machine.
    • 1958, Raymond F. Jones, chapter 9, in The Year When Stardust Fell[3], Philadelphia: John C. Winston:
      “To think a man like Mr. Tucker would do something like that!”" She went out, clucking her tongue in exaggerated dismay.
    • 2009, Barbara Kingsolver, The Lacuna[4], New York: HarperCollins, Part 3, p. 236:
      “But newspapers have a duty to truth,” Van said.
      Lev clucked his tongue. “They tell the truth only as the exception. []