clack

English

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle English clacken, clakken, claken, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old English *clacian ("to slap, clap, clack"; suggested by clacu (“din; harm, injury”)), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Proto-Germanic *klakōną (“to clap, chirp”), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Proto-Indo-European *glag- (“to make a noise, clap, twitter”), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Proto-Indo-European *gal- (“to roop, scream, shout”). Cognate with Scots clake, claik (“to utter cries", also "to bedaub, sully with a sticky substance”), Dutch klakken (“to clack, crack”), Low German klakken (“to slap on, daub”), (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Norwegian klakke (“to clack, strike, knock”), Icelandic klaka (“to twitter, chatter, wrangle, dispute”).

Noun

clack (plural clacks)

1. An abrupt, sharp sound, especially one made by two hard objects colliding repetitively; a sound midway between a click and a clunk.
2. Anything that causes a clacking noise, such as the clapper of a mill, or a clack valve.
3. Clatter; prattle.
   • South

     Whose chief intent is to vaunt his spiritual clack.

Derived terms

Derived terms

• clack box
• clack dish

• clack door
• clack valve

Translations

an abrupt, sharp sound

• Bulgarian: тракане (bg) (trakane), чукане (bg) (čukane)
• Finnish: kalahdus (fi), kolahdus (fi), kalina (fi), kolina (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Russian: треск (ru) m (tresk)

chatter

• Bulgarian: бърборене (bg) n (bǎrborene)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

Verb

clack (third-person singular simple present clacks, present participle clacking, simple past and past participle clacked)

1. (intransitive) To make a sudden, sharp noise, or succession of noises; to click.
   • Thackeray

     We heard Mr. Hodson's whip clacking on the shoulders of the poor little wretches.

2. (transitive) To cause to make a sudden, sharp noise, or succession of noises; to click.
3. To chatter or babble; to utter rapidly without consideration.

   (Can we [[:Category:Requests for quotations/{{{2}}}|find and add]] a quotation of {{{2}}} to this entry?)

   • 1953, Janice Holt Giles, The Kentuckians

     The women bunched up in little droves and let their tongues clack, and the men herded together and passed a jug around and, to tell the truth, let their tongues clack too.

4. (UK) To cut the sheep's mark off (wool), to make the wool weigh less and thus yield less duty.

Translations

to make such a sound

• Bulgarian: тракам (bg) (trakam), чукам (bg) (čukam)
• Finnish: kalahtaa (fi), kolahtaa (fi), kalista (fi), kolista (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Greek: χτυπώ (el) (chtypó)

to chatter or babble

• Bulgarian: бърборя (bg) n (bǎrborja)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Finnish: kälättää, räpättää

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “clack”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)