Quack Definition

kwăk
quacking, quacks
noun
The sound made by a duck, or any sound like it.
Webster's New World
An untrained person who practices medicine fraudulently.
Webster's New World
Any person who pretends to have knowledge or skill in a particular field; charlatan.
Webster's New World
A charlatan; a mountebank.
American Heritage
Carlyle.
Wiktionary
verb
To utter the characteristic sound or cry of a duck, or a sound like it.
Webster's New World
To act as a medical quack or a charlatan.
American Heritage Medicine
To engage in quackery.
Webster's New World

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?
Wiktionary
adjective
Relating to or characteristic of a quack.
A quack cure.
American Heritage Medicine
Characterized by pretentious claims with little or no foundation.
Webster's New World
Dishonestly claiming to effect a cure.
Webster's New World

Falsely presented as having medicinal powers.

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

Other Word Forms of Quack

Noun

Singular:
quack
Plural:
quacks

Origin of Quack

  • From Middle English *quacken, queken (“to croak like a frog; make a noise like a duck, goose, or quail"), from quack, qwacke, quek, queke (“quack", interjection and noun), also kek, keke, whec-, partly of imitative origin and partly from Middle Dutch quacken (“to croak, quack"), from Old Dutch *kwaken (“to croak, quack"), from Proto-Germanic *kwakanÄ…, *kwakōnÄ… (“to croak"), of imitative origin. Cognate with Saterland Frisian kwoakje, Middle Low German quaken (“to quack, croak"), German quaken (“to quack, croak"), Danish kvække (“to croak"), Swedish kväka (“to croak, quackle"), Norwegian kvekke (“to croak"), Icelandic kvaka (“to twitter, chirp").

    From Wiktionary

  • c 1630, shortening of quacksalver, from Middle Dutch kwaksalver (“hawker of salve") (Dutch kwakzalver), from quacken (“to brag, boast; to croak")

    From Wiktionary

  • Middle English quek of imitative origin

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • Short for quacksalver

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

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