shuck

See also: Shuck

English

Etymology

Origin unknown.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃʌk/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌk

Noun

shuck (plural shucks)

1. The shell or husk, especially of grains (e.g. corn/maize) or nuts (e.g. walnuts).
   • 1931, William Faulkner, Sanctuary, Library of America, 1985, p.46:

     There was no linen, no pillow, and when she touched the mattress it gave forth the faint dry whisper of shucks.

2. (slang, African-American Vernacular) A fraud; a scam.
3. (slang) A phony.

Verb

shuck (third-person singular simple present shucks, present participle shucking, simple past and past participle shucked)

1. (transitive) To remove the shuck from (walnuts, oysters, etc.).

   Shall we shuck walnuts?

2. (transitive) To remove (any outer covering).

   I will shuck my clothes and dive naked into the pool.

   • 1941 April, “Notes and News: The Reason Why”, in Railway Magazine, page 182:

     [...] but what had actually happened was that the wheel of one of the coaches became detached from its axle, or, in the more expressive American argot, the train "shucked off a wheel near Everett."

3. (transitive, intransitive, slang) To fool; to hoax.

Derived terms

• shuck and jive

Translations

to extract shellfish from shells

• Bulgarian: вадя от черупката (vadja ot čerupkata)
• French: décortiquer (fr), écailler (fr), écosser (fr)
• Galician: escochar, esconchar
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Maori: pāoraora, tiora, kōwhā
• Russian: очищать (ru) impf (očiščatʹ)

to remove

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Bulgarian: обелвам (bg) (obelvam)

to fool; to hoax

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Bulgarian: баламосвам (bg) (balamosvam)

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “shuck”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
• “shuck”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “shuck off”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

Anagrams

• Hucks, hucks