quack
The conventional English representation of a duck’s call.
Origin
Direct animal-call imitation.
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74 entries
Onomatopoeia
Bang, rustle, fizz, thud and other words whose sound helps perform their meaning.
49 historiesPhrase origins
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swoosh
A fuller, more forceful rushing sound than “swish”.
Origin
Expressive sound imitation.
pull out all the stops
Make the greatest possible effort or use every available option.
Origin
From organ stops, which control sets of pipes and therefore the instrument’s available sound.
chuffed
Very pleased or delighted.
Origin
Its earlier dialect history is complicated and some older senses differed from today's positive meaning.
draw a blank
Produce no answer, recollection or successful outcome.
Origin
Eighteenth-century lottery language.
argle-bargle
Noisy, meaningless argument or verbose nonsense.
Origin
A Scots/English reduplicative expression related to argle, meaning argue.