Cuckoo
noun
A type of bird known for its distinctive call, which sounds like its name.
I heard a cuckoo in the distance this morning.
Often appears as...
- cuckoo call
- cuckoo song
adjective
Crazy or insane, often used in an affectionate or humorous manner.
You're cuckoo if you think I'm going to jump out of a plane!
Often appears as...
- go cuckoo
- cuckoo for
Usage tips
Informal, Disapproving
Colloquial
noun
A type of clock, especially a wall clock that sounds the hours with a sound like a cuckoo bird.
She had an antique cuckoo clock in her living room.
Often appears as...
- cuckoo clock
- cuckoo time
noun
In UK, a young person who violently takes over the home of a vulnerable person to use it as a base for drug dealing.
The police are cracking down on cuckoos who are exploiting the vulnerable in our community.
Often appears as...
- cuckooing
- cuckoo activity
Usage tips
Disapproving
noun
A type of bird known for its distinctive call, which sounds like its name.
I heard a cuckoo in the distance this morning.
Often appears as...
- cuckoo call
- cuckoo song
adjective
Crazy or insane, often used in an affectionate or humorous manner.
You're cuckoo if you think I'm going to jump out of a plane!
Often appears as...
- go cuckoo
- cuckoo for
Usage tips
Informal, Disapproving
Colloquial
noun
A type of clock, especially a wall clock that sounds the hours with a sound like a cuckoo bird.
She had an antique cuckoo clock in her living room.
Often appears as...
- cuckoo clock
- cuckoo time
noun
In UK, a young person who violently takes over the home of a vulnerable person to use it as a base for drug dealing.
The police are cracking down on cuckoos who are exploiting the vulnerable in our community.
Often appears as...
- cuckooing
- cuckoo activity
Usage tips
Disapproving
Definition 1 of 4
Pro Tip 1/2Bird Call Onomatopoeia
The word 'cuckoo' mimics the sound the bird makes, known as onomatopoeia.
The cuckoo's call echoes 'cuckoo' in the spring woods.
Pro Tip 2/2Seasonal Reference
'Cuckoo' can signify the arrival of spring or change of season in poetry and literature.
Poems about spring often mention the cuckoo's song.
Pro Tip 1/2Bird Call Onomatopoeia
The word 'cuckoo' mimics the sound the bird makes, known as onomatopoeia.
The cuckoo's call echoes 'cuckoo' in the spring woods.
Pro Tip 2/2Seasonal Reference
'Cuckoo' can signify the arrival of spring or change of season in poetry and literature.
Poems about spring often mention the cuckoo's song.
Pro Tip 1/2Bird Call Onomatopoeia
The word 'cuckoo' mimics the sound the bird makes, known as onomatopoeia.
The cuckoo's call echoes 'cuckoo' in the spring woods.
Pro Tip 2/2Seasonal Reference
'Cuckoo' can signify the arrival of spring or change of season in poetry and literature.
Poems about spring often mention the cuckoo's song.
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Video examples
See Elephants at Their...
much yellow around the base of the beak you can see there's quite a dark beak on the common cuckoo was so quite a heavenly spotted tail and barred with that little white trim on the edge of it so I think it was the common cuckoo like I said I didn't get a really good look at the beef but it didn't look like it had very much yellow in it at all the
Video examples
Safari Live - Day 65 PIPE...
lovely birding sightings while we were while we were busy following up on on some of the guys that just let me know that there's some elephants in the area while we were moving through we spotted some what old starlings and that the Jacobins cuckoo that I said was a jacobins what's in fact I love violence
Video examples
Safari Live - Day 146 PIPE...
Margaret back north with the rest of the cuckoos that have already left so he might be strategy and overwinter and I wonder if he's gonna enjoy a diet of something other than caterpillars which is what the cuckoos enjoy okay well we're gonna continue on as I said heading into the area of Tandy from this
Video examples
Safari Live - Day 31 PIPE...
bright it's beautiful it's got this call that just reminds you that summer is on its way and a change of this dry winter season so for me it's that's one of the birds I always look forward to seeing like I said the carmine bee-eaters they are a beautiful bird cuckoo species
Video examples
What's your 200-year...
Our friends think we're mad. Our parents think we're cuckoo. Because, you know, we both come from families that really look up to humility and wisdom, but we both like to live larger than life. I believe in the concept of a Raja Be a dude before you can become an ascetic.
Video examples
Would you raise the bird...
Reed warblers are good at ejecting poorly matching cuckoo eggs. But if one hatches in their nest, they’ll care for it even after it’s grown six times their size. Though chick rejection is a rarer phenomenon, there are some noteworthy examples.
Video examples
Safari Live - Day 308 PIPE...
that's as beautiful spots a little bit of elevation for the cuckoo and the wind blowing over the the lips or should I say the wet tongue is what helps birds to cool down that is their cooling system two term called gala fluttering
Video examples
Big Brother Eviction...
the hosts always desert a single egg they never desert a single chick the cuckoo chick is astonishing this strong and has a distinctive hollow back that helps balance the hosts egg or chick before throwing it out of the nest
Video examples
Safari Live - Day 329 PIPE...
those of you unfamiliar with cuckoo biology they obviously never meet their own offspring right so that thing's parents would have laid well its mother would have laid an egg inside the virtual starlings nest and I suspect
Video examples
Safari Live - Day 121 PIPE...
said it was a cuckoo it looked like either a Jacobin or love Ellen's cuckoo I didn't see the colors very well the levan it's got white black lines on the white chest and the Jacobin just says
Video examples
See Elephants at Their...
much yellow around the base of the beak you can see there's quite a dark beak on the common cuckoo was so quite a heavenly spotted tail and barred with that little white trim on the edge of it so I think it was the common cuckoo like I said I didn't get a really good look at the beef but it didn't look like it had very much yellow in it at all the
Video examples
Safari Live - Day 65 PIPE...
lovely birding sightings while we were while we were busy following up on on some of the guys that just let me know that there's some elephants in the area while we were moving through we spotted some what old starlings and that the Jacobins cuckoo that I said was a jacobins what's in fact I love violence
Video examples
Safari Live - Day 146 PIPE...
Margaret back north with the rest of the cuckoos that have already left so he might be strategy and overwinter and I wonder if he's gonna enjoy a diet of something other than caterpillars which is what the cuckoos enjoy okay well we're gonna continue on as I said heading into the area of Tandy from this
Video examples
Safari Live - Day 31 PIPE...
bright it's beautiful it's got this call that just reminds you that summer is on its way and a change of this dry winter season so for me it's that's one of the birds I always look forward to seeing like I said the carmine bee-eaters they are a beautiful bird cuckoo species
Video examples
What's your 200-year...
Our friends think we're mad. Our parents think we're cuckoo. Because, you know, we both come from families that really look up to humility and wisdom, but we both like to live larger than life. I believe in the concept of a Raja Be a dude before you can become an ascetic.
Video examples
Would you raise the bird...
Reed warblers are good at ejecting poorly matching cuckoo eggs. But if one hatches in their nest, they’ll care for it even after it’s grown six times their size. Though chick rejection is a rarer phenomenon, there are some noteworthy examples.
Video examples
Safari Live - Day 308 PIPE...
that's as beautiful spots a little bit of elevation for the cuckoo and the wind blowing over the the lips or should I say the wet tongue is what helps birds to cool down that is their cooling system two term called gala fluttering
Video examples
Big Brother Eviction...
the hosts always desert a single egg they never desert a single chick the cuckoo chick is astonishing this strong and has a distinctive hollow back that helps balance the hosts egg or chick before throwing it out of the nest
Video examples
Safari Live - Day 329 PIPE...
those of you unfamiliar with cuckoo biology they obviously never meet their own offspring right so that thing's parents would have laid well its mother would have laid an egg inside the virtual starlings nest and I suspect
Video examples
Safari Live - Day 121 PIPE...
said it was a cuckoo it looked like either a Jacobin or love Ellen's cuckoo I didn't see the colors very well the levan it's got white black lines on the white chest and the Jacobin just says
Example 1 of 10
Quote examples
Judy Blume
American Author
I never thought about writing. I was married young, I was still in college, as we did then, and I had two babies before I was 25, and I loved them, and I loved taking care of them, but I was a little bit cuckoo, staying at home and not having a creative outlet.
Quote examples
John Burnside
Scottish Writer
Given the right information to help them decide, people will opt for conditions that benefit our creaturely neighbours, even where they have no particular interest in larks or cuckoo wasps - because those conditions benefit us.
Quote examples
Joan Allen
American Actress
My mother had very poor hearing for many years, until she went basically into - I guess I would call it a psychotic break. She was OK one day, and the next day she was completely cuckoo, violent, paranoid.
Quote examples
Ernest Hemingway
American Novelist
Switzerland is a small, steep country, much more up and down than sideways, and is all stuck over with large brown hotels built on the cuckoo clock style of architecture.
Quote examples
Alan Coren
British Writer
Since both its national products, snow and chocolate, melt, the cuckoo clock was invented solely in order to give tourists something solid to remember it by.
Quote examples
Mike Portnoy
American Musician
I love my family more than life itself, but I can only sit at home by my pool eating barbecue food so many days before I go cuckoo.
Quote examples
Graham Greene
British Novelist
In Switzerland they had brotherly love, five hundred years of democracy and peace, and what did they produce? The cuckoo clock!
Quote examples
Kirsten Dunst
Actress
You know how people say awards don't mean anything? Hello! I think the energy around them makes everyone cuckoo.
Quote examples
Wilson Mizner
American Dramatist
The cuckoo who is on to himself is halfway out of the clock.
Quote examples
Shenaz Treasury
American Actress
I don't drink coffee: it makes me cuckoo!
Quote examples
Judy Blume
American Author
I never thought about writing. I was married young, I was still in college, as we did then, and I had two babies before I was 25, and I loved them, and I loved taking care of them, but I was a little bit cuckoo, staying at home and not having a creative outlet.
Quote examples
John Burnside
Scottish Writer
Given the right information to help them decide, people will opt for conditions that benefit our creaturely neighbours, even where they have no particular interest in larks or cuckoo wasps - because those conditions benefit us.
Quote examples
Joan Allen
American Actress
My mother had very poor hearing for many years, until she went basically into - I guess I would call it a psychotic break. She was OK one day, and the next day she was completely cuckoo, violent, paranoid.
Quote examples
Ernest Hemingway
American Novelist
Switzerland is a small, steep country, much more up and down than sideways, and is all stuck over with large brown hotels built on the cuckoo clock style of architecture.
Quote examples
Alan Coren
British Writer
Since both its national products, snow and chocolate, melt, the cuckoo clock was invented solely in order to give tourists something solid to remember it by.
Quote examples
Mike Portnoy
American Musician
I love my family more than life itself, but I can only sit at home by my pool eating barbecue food so many days before I go cuckoo.
Quote examples
Graham Greene
British Novelist
In Switzerland they had brotherly love, five hundred years of democracy and peace, and what did they produce? The cuckoo clock!
Quote examples
Kirsten Dunst
Actress
You know how people say awards don't mean anything? Hello! I think the energy around them makes everyone cuckoo.
Quote examples
Wilson Mizner
American Dramatist
The cuckoo who is on to himself is halfway out of the clock.
Quote examples
Shenaz Treasury
American Actress
I don't drink coffee: it makes me cuckoo!
Example 1 of 10
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