See Also: cuckoo(dictionary)
cuckoo(encyclopedia)
Klaas's cuckoo(dictionary)
cuckoo-pint(dictionary)
cuckoo 1, noun(dictionary)
cuckoo 2, adjective(dictionary)
cuckoo clock(dictionary)

cuckoo (iou)



cuckoo noun, interjection, adjective, & verb. ME.

A. noun.
A migratory Eurasian grey or brown speckled bird, Cuculus canorus, which leaves its eggs in the nests of other birds and has a distinctive cry, the first hearing of which is regarded as a harbinger of spring. ME.
Spenser The merry Cuckow, messenger of Spring.
b. Any bird of the cosmopolitan family Cuculidae, including cuckoos, the roadrunner, and the anis. L18.
chestnut-bellied cuckoo a large brownish cuckoo of Jamaica, Hyetornis pluvialis; also called hunter, old man. EMERALD cuckoo. KLAAS'S CUCKOO. SHINING cuckoo.
Also interjection. (Repr.) the call of the cuckoo; an imitation of this. ME.
A person who behaves like a cuckoo; spec. (slang) a silly person. L16.
cuckoo in the nest an unwanted intruder.
O. W. Holmes We Americans are all cuckoos,we make our homes in the nests of other birds. J. K. Jerome Give us a hand here, can't you, you cuckoo; standing there like a stuffed mummy.
Comb.: cuckoo-bud dial. any of various plants (in Shakes. perh. a buttercup); cuckoo clock: in which the hours are sounded by an imitation of the cuckoo's call (often with an imitation cuckoo appearing); cuckoo-flower any of various spring wild flowers, esp. Cardamine pratensis, a cruciferous plant with small pink flowers (also called lady's-smock); cuckoo-land = cloud-cuckoo-land s.v. CLOUD noun; cuckoo roller: see ROLLER noun2; cuckoo scab Austral. & NZ a skin disease of sheep; cuckoo-shrike any of various tropical Old World passerines of the family Campephagidae, which resemble shrikes; cuckoo's mate the wryneck; cuckoo's meat = wood sorrel s.v. WOOD noun1; cuckoo-spit, cuckoo-spittle a frothy secretion exuded on plants by larvae of insects of the family Cercopidae (froghoppers or spittle-bugs); cuckoo wasp any wasp of the family Chrysididae, which includes solitary wasps of a metallic blue or green colour which lay eggs in the nests of other wasps and bees; cuckoo wrasse a nest-building European wrasse, Labrus mixtus.
b. adjective.
Of or pertaining to the cuckoo; resembling the cuckoo and its uniformly repeated call. Usu. attrib. E17.
A. Helps Tired of hearing this cuckoo exclamation.
Crazy; foolish. slang. E20.
M. Gilbert She must be cuckoo.
C. verb.
verb intrans. Utter the call of the cuckoo. E17.
verb trans. Repeat incessantly and without variation. M17.