quack
noun
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L25045 on Wikidata ↗verb
- make duck noises
adjective
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L339666 on Wikidata ↗Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /kwæk/
adj
Etymology: Etymology tree Middle Dutch quacsalven Dutch quacksalverbor. English quacksalverclip. English quack Clipping of quacksalver (see there for more), of Dutch origin; ultimately related to Etymology 1 above.
- Falsely presented as having medicinal powers.
“Don't get your hopes up; that's quack medicine!”
“In precisely the same way does a quack doctor prescribe his infallible nostrum to every patient, without taking into account differences of constitution, or [...]”
intj
Etymology: 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-West Germanic *kwakōn, from Proto-Germanic *kwakaną, *kwakōną (“to croak”), of imitative origin. Cognate with Saterland Frisian kwoakje, kwaakje (“to quack”), 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, quack”).
- A duck's quack.
noun
Etymology: Etymology tree Middle Dutch quacsalven Dutch quacksalverbor. English quacksalverclip. English quack Clipping of quacksalver (see there for more), of Dutch origin; ultimately related to Etymology 1 above.
- A fraudulent healer, especially a bombastic peddler in worthless treatments, a doctor who makes false diagnoses for monetary benefit, or an untrained or poorly trained doctor who uses fraudulent credentials to attract patients
“That doctor is nothing but a lousy quack!”
“1662, Rump: or an Exact Collection of the Choycest Poems and Songs Relating to Late Times, Vol. II, by ‘the most Eminent Wits’ Tis hard to say, how much these Arse-wormes do urge us, We now need no Quack but these Jacks for to purge us, …”
- Any similar charlatan or incompetent professional.
“The very quaik of faſhions, the very hee that / VVeares a Steletto on his chinne.”
- Any doctor.
“That quack wants me to quit smoking, eat less, and start exercising. The nerve!”
verb
Etymology: Etymology tree Middle Dutch quacsalven Dutch quacksalverbor. English quacksalverclip. English quack Clipping of quacksalver (see there for more), of Dutch origin; ultimately related to Etymology 1 above.
- To practice or commit quackery (fraudulent medicine).
“[…] it is incredible, and scarce to be imagin’d, how the Posts of Houses, and Corners of Streets were plaster’d over with Doctors Bills, and Papers of ignorant Fellows; quacking and tampering in Physick, and inviting the People to come to them for Remedies;”
- To make vain and loud pretensions.
“Seek out for Plants with Signatures To Quack of Universal Cures”