cack

• IPA^(key): /kæk/

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æk

Onomatopoeia.

cack (plural cacks)

1. A squawk.
   • 1897, Frank Michler Chapman, Handbook of Birds of Eastern North America, page 380:

     Of course, so excitable a nature must find other than physical outlet for his irrepressible energy, and he accompanies his movements by more or less appropriate notes: scolding cacks, clinking, metallic rattles, musical trills, tree-toadlike krrrings – in fact, he possesses an almost endless vocabulary .

   • 1916, Frank Michler Chapman, Handbook of Birds of Eastern North America‎^[1], page 493:

     […] for on occasions he gives utterance to an entirely uncharacteristic series of cacking notes, and even mounts high in the tree to sing a hesitating medley of the same unmusical cacks, broken whistled calls, and attempted trills.

   • 2014, Stanley H. Anderson, ‎John R. Squires, The Prairie Falcon, page 4:

     When birds approach their cliffs in the spring, they often emit a series of rapidly repeated cacks, or notes of varying pitches. Sometimes the notes are very spirited; others are very soft. Male cacks tend to be higher pitched than those of females.

2. A discordant note.
3. (informal) The cackling goose (Branta hutchinsii)
   • 1950, Field and Stream - Volume 55, page 42:

     […] cacks, " the whitefronts or specklebellies in the Sacramento Valley

   • 2012, Van Campen Heilner, A Book on Duck Shooting:

     White geese aren't supposed to be such good eating and most of the gunners want "specs" or "cacks" or Hutchins or Canadas but I'll eat snow geese any time you don't want 'em.

cack (third-person singular simple present cacks, present participle cacking, simple past and past participle cacked)

1. (of a bird) To squawk.
   • 1990, P. H. Liotta, Learning to Fly‎^[2], page 32:

     Still fluffy with down, she often attacks the other birds, cacking and flashing her wings, or threatens me as I watch through the tiny peephole of the near box.

   • 2000, Minnesota Ornithologists′ Union, The Loon, Volumes 72-74, page 37,

     While the Gyrfalcon cacked loudly on each stoop, the owl did not scream.

   • 2007, Turk Allcott, Time Leak‎^[3], page 63:

     Peckle snitted them off and cacked at them. Then he flew up by the rope-tie spot and puffed out his chest and then the wrens made another dash for the scraps and he dove down and cacked them away.

2. (brass instrument technique) To incorrectly play a note by hitting a partial other than the one intended.

   The bugler hopes not to cack during his performance.

From Middle English cakken, from Old English *cacian, from Old English cac (“dung; excrement”), of uncertain origin and relation.

Cognate with English caca. Compare Dutch kakken (“to defecate”), German kacken (“to relieve oneself; defecate”), Latin cacō (“defecate”) (see there for more); compare also Irish cac (“feces, excrement”).

cack (third-person singular simple present cacks, present participle cacking, simple past and past participle cacked)

1. (intransitive) To defecate.
   • 2014, 'Rock Rampant', Mauve Flush, page 245:

     Can't cack... won't cack, My bum hole has gone on strike, I've huffed and puffed, grunted and groaned, And squeezed as hard as I liked, I've leant myself backwards, leant to the front, Raised my knees and then put them back, I've gripped the seat and pushed like hell, But still...I can't have a cack.

2. (transitive) To defecate (on); to shit.
   • 2005, M. J. Simpson, Hitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas Adams‎^[4], page 322:

     ‘I asked him once if he got nervous before doing it,’ says Astin, ‘and he said he was absolutely cacking himself before going on stage, but as soon as he got there it was fantastic.’

   • 2010, Tony Doyle, Flying at the Edge: 20 Years of Front-Line and Display Flying in the Cold War Era, Pen and Sword, →ISBN, page 356:

     […] through the open door, now directly below his feet, and nearly cacked his breeks when the stretcher skidded slightly on the shiny metal floor.

   • 2010, Julian Barnes, Nothing to be Frightened Of, Vintage Canada, →ISBN, page 68:

     Another distinction she reported: my brother once cacked his pants and responded with the words, "It will never happen again" – and it didn't, […]

   • 2013, Nick Barlay, Hooky Gear:

     Just to let me know, to keep me on the move, to make me cack my pants for now an most likely for ever.

   • 2018, B. de Paul, When Angels Rise, →ISBN:

     Hans Bach gave him a look, and he cacked his pants and hurried off.

3. (transitive) To excrete (something) by defecation.
   • 2016, Nicholas Blincoe, Jello Salad, Canelo, →ISBN:

     He smelled the ferrous oxide of blood and the farmyard stench of shit. He'd cacked it. He was empty and he'd cacked his load. The brushman came over, lisping slightly […]

4. (US, slang) To kill.

   He tried to shoot me, so I cacked him.

   • 1923, Béroalde de Verville, Fantastic Tales; Or, The Way to Attain:

     Stay, by your leave I will put in a distinguo; your goose has cacked.

5. To cheat.
   • 1893, John Cleland, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (Fanny Hill), page 282:

     Thus was I then to lose my faithfull preceptress, as did the philosophers of the town the white crow of her profession: for besides that she never ransacked her customers, whose taste too she ever studiously consulted, she never cacked her pupils with unconscionable extortions, nor ever put their hard earnings, as she called them, under the contribution of poundage.

• (to shit): See Thesaurus:defecate
• (to kill): See Thesaurus:kill

• becack
• cack on

cack (countable and uncountable, plural cacks)

1. An act of defecation.
   • 2014, 'Rock Rampant', Mauve Flush, page 245:

     Can't cack... won't cack, My bum hole has gone on strike, I've huffed and puffed, grunted and groaned, And squeezed as hard as I liked, I've leant myself backwards, leant to the front, Raised my knees and then put them back, I've gripped the the seat and pushed like hell, But still...I can't have a cack.

2. (slang) Excrement.
   • 2013, Nick Barlay, Hooky Gear:

     I dive back in along the cobbles, step over the cack, wall an fence closin me down, barbed wire left, razor wire right, follow by puttied-in broken glass, spike rails an stuck-on warnings about dogs.

   • 2016, Patricia Rice, Theory of Magic:

     " And have bird cack on their heads , " Jacques agreed cheerfully, to Ash's relief.

3. (slang) Rubbish; anything worthless.
   • 2009, Monica Ali, In The Kitchen, page 425:

     'See that' said the man, pointing with his fork at a trace of soemthing on the rim, 'that's not been washed properly. That's a bit of old cack on there.'

   • 2013, Gemma Files, “Nanny Grey”, in Ellen Datlow, editor, The Best Horror of the Year:

     At first, he genuinely didn't recognize her without all that high-gloss cack on her face.

   • 2017, Bob Mortimer & Andy Dawson, The World of Football According to Athletico Mince, page 1996:

     Not thinking, because he's got it in his hand, he wipes her mouth with the dirty dishcloth – leaves a little bit of cack on her lips, but she doesn't notice .

   • 2021 September 2, Paul Simms, “The Prisoner” (21:35 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows‎^[5], season 3, episode 1, spoken by Laszlo Cravensworth (Matt Berry):

     “This building. Eesh! Still sends shivers through my bones.” “Last time we were here we were sentenced to death by the Vampiric Council.” “Had we not escaped from this cack house...” “I saved them.” “We saved them.” “Had we not escaped from this fluorescent mausoleum, we'd be fucking dead.”

   • 2023, Helen Aitchison, The Life and Love (Attempts) of Kitty Cook:

     Or super fit cycle/running bods who won't let me lie like a bag of cack on the sofa on a Sunday afternoon.

• (excrement): caca; see also Thesaurus:feces

Possibly derived from cackle (“to squawk”, verb), which has semantically shifted to “laughing uncontrollably”. (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

cack (third-person singular simple present cacks, present participle cacking, simple past and past participle cacked)

1. (Australian slang) To laugh.

   I had to cack when you fell down the stairs.

• cack up

From cock.

cack (uncountable)

1. (slang) Penis.

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

cack (plural cacks)

1. An inexpensive boot or shoe made in the 19th or early 20th century for a baby or young child.
   • 1903 December 23, John C. Thompson, “Deceiving Customers”, in Shoe Retailer and Boots and Shoes Weekly, volume 48, page 81:

     To one handling shoes, from cacks to footwear for the oldest men and women , and taking into consideration the trade as it is handled at large not simply in our city , the universally ac- knowledged metropolis of the world , I desire to say that to my mind there is more fakism used to sell shoes than to sell any other necessary article.

   • 1981, Paul Gustaf Faler, Mechanics and Manufacturers in the Early Industrial Revolution, page 91:

     Nathan D. Chase, a well-to-do boss who accumulated enough wealth to retire in 1850 at middle age, observed that the prices for making shoes remained low from 1837 to 1842: 4 cents for red-bottomed cacks, 8 cents for women's turned slippers, 10 cents for thick-heeled runrounds, 12 cents for set heels, 20 cents for welts.

   • 1897 September 22, C.P. Woodruff, “Rochester, N.Y”, in Boot and Shoe Recorder, volume 31, page 107:

     In the cacks for infants I noticed a tasty little patent leather foxed with cloth top, an ox blood slipper with dainty bow, and then there are others with green cloth tops, Scotch plaids and vesting tops in a great variety of combinations.

2. (slang) A young child
   • 1908, Hugh J. Hughes, “A Boy's Day”, in Harper's Weekly, volume 52, page 52:

     Ma is calling breakfast. The little cacks are up. Billy, who is only six –and you are eight! –Billy tried to wash himself and got some soap in his eyes. Funny that little cacks like that always get soap in their eyes!

   • 2000, Anthony Akerman, Dark Outsider: Three Plays, page 123:

     Seniors bully cacks because they were bullied as cacks. Old boys who were miserable here send their sons here to make them miserable. It's called tradition.

   • 2009, Matthew Knight, Between the Lines: The Spirit of South African Rugby, page 106:

     Even fresh Cacks with some prowess on the rugby or cricket field are likely to get it slightly easier than their quivering peers.

cack (plural cacks)

1. obsolete spelling of cake (any sense)
   • 1625, Samuel Purchas, Purchas His Pilgrimes: In Fiue Bookes, page 395:

     Eye colours for dying blew, almost as good as Indico, made vp in round cacks or pieces, and packed one hundred cacks in a Fardell, worth the Fardell, fiftie to sixtie.

   • 1888, Duane Hamilton Hurd, History of Essex County, Massachusetts, page 322:

     the gouerners Expences from the Coart of election, 1651, till the end of October, 1651; to bear & cacks [ beer and cakes ] 6d.; bear and cacks to himself and som other gentlemen, 18. 2d.; bear and cacks with Mr. Downing, 1s. 6d.; bear & a cack, 6d. -3s. 8d. "

   • 1897, Edward Field, The Colonial Tavern, page 51:

     The picture of Governor Endicott sitting at table in the "Anchor" eating "cacks" and drinking "beare" robs this picturesque character in Colonial history of some of its lustre.