cuckoo n.1
1. a cuckold; thus the fig. wearing of the cuckoo’s feather, the state of being a cuckold [the cuckoo lays its eggs in another bird’s nest].
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Love’s Labour’s Lost V ii: The cuckoo then on easy tree / Mocks married men. | |
| Juniper Lecture 221: I made him weare an invisible Cuckooes Feather in his Cap. | |
| in Pills to Purge Melancholy I 174: Who’s the Cuckoo, Who’s the Cuckold, who’s the horner? | |
| Progress of a Rake 19: The Cuckow never was at rest, / For fear some Bird should foul his Nest. | |
| Satirist (London) 7 Aug. 141/2: A cuckoo...Lord Tankerville. | |
| Crim.-Con. Gaz. 3 Nov. 87/3: That unfortunate race of men whom the illiberal classes [...] distinguish by the denomination of cuckolds, but whom we [...] called Knights of the Cuckoo. |
2. (also coo-coo) a fool, an eccentric, a silly person.
| Kind-Harts Dreame F3: They can bypasse, compasse, and bring vnder one another as cunningly and commonly, as euer poore Cuckoe coulde command his Jacke in a Boxe. | |
| Henry IV Pt 1 II iv: O’horseback, ye cuckoo! but, afoot he will not budge a foot. | |
| ‘An Armado’ in Works (1869) I 78: They had likewise store of fowle, as Gull, Goose, Widgeon, Woodcocke, Buzzard, Owles, Cormorants, Quailes, Railes, Cuckooes, Wag-tailes, Ring-tailes, and Bittoures. | |
| ‘Poems on the Duke of Monmouth’ in Bagford Ballads (1876–80) II 804: Let every scabby City-Cuckow, / Fly into your Hedge-lane to look you. | |
| Compleat and Humorous Account of Remarkable Clubs (1756) 42: By these sort of Stratagems they used to hedge in their Cuckows. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Peveril of the Peak (1824) 85: For the cuckoo I travel with and whom I indulge in his prodigal follies, he also has his uses. | |
| Three Men in a Boat 153: Give us a hand here, can’t you, you cuckoo. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Bulletin (Sydney) 9 Nov. 36/2: You’re a fine gentleman ter talk to a pore woman abart ’er box. Garn, yer bald-’eded old cooco; I’ll bash yer bloomin’ face if yer ses any more ter me! | |
| Barrier Miner (Broken Hill, NSW) 12 Jan. 2/3: They heard it said that Tom Mann was a ramping ranting cuckoo. | |
| Card (1974) 267: ‘You are nothing but a cuckoo,’ Denry pleasantly informed her. | |
 | Pay Envelope Loses Kick 3 Jan. [synd. col.] Bill’s wife isn’t the only cuckoo who’s up against the eats puzzle. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Fighting Blood 27: Suppose Judy sees me – or this cuckoo, Rags Dempster? | |
| Living (1978) 274: Don’t listen to that old cuckoo. | |
| Nine Tailors (1984) 182: What a beetle-headed cuckoo I am! | |
| Medford Mail Trib. (OR) 25 July 6/3: [cartoon caption] ‘I gotta hustle to make some bucks an’ give that [...] coocoo his dough’. | |
| Iceman Cometh Act I: What a bunch of cuckoos! | |
| Always Leave ’Em Dying 129: This was the damnedest, goofiest vista of cuckoos I had ever laid eyes on in my life. | |
| , | | DAS 120/1: coo-coo An insane person; one who is crazy, stupid, or unconventional. |
| Flop Sweat in Shatterday (1982) 71: We know there are enough cuckoos out there who like to confess to crimes. | |
| in N.Y. Times n.p.: After all, it wouldn’t be spring, would it, without the voice of the occasional cuckoo? [R]. | |
| Point of Origin (1999) 2: This letter’s probably not from her at all. Probably some other cuckoo. |
3. (US) something foolish, a failure.
| Young People’s Pride 9: I bet his book’ll be a cuckoo, then. |
In compounds
(US) a psychiatric institution.
| Loveland 232: I loved her too much to commit her to the Cuckoo Academy [HDAS]. | |
| eBodyboarding.com 1 Nov. 🌐 Some of you may understand what I’m saying and others will think a room at the Bellevue Cuckoo Academy better suits my current state. |
(US) an eccentric, a mad person.
| Call House Madam 282: This same cuckoo bird threw a stag party one night. | |
| Go, Man, Go! 109: There — now you know what time it is. [...] The cuckoo bird said her piece. | |
| Long Walk in Bachman Books (1995) 286: A party-down city full of a million boogying drunks and cuckoo birds and out-and-out maniacs. |
1. (US) a psychiatric institution .
| Dev. Stocking 175: You ought to be on the cuckoo farm. You’re nutty as a fruitcake [HDAS]. |
2. (N.Z. prison) a cell used for mentally unbalanced and/or suicidal inmates.
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 50/1: cuckoo farm n. a cell reserved for mentally unbalanced and/or suicidal inmates. |
(US) a psychiatric institution.
| Last Rustler 27: For one man to watch this place alone is enough to send him to the cuckoo house. | |
| in Time 5 Jan. 1942 50: Current favorite among her recordings: Doin’ a War Dance Down at the Cuckoo House [HDAS]. | |
| Armies of the Night 239: Watch it, old buddy, they put junior reverends in the cuckoo house for carrying on. | |
| Blue Messiah 119: He goes to the cuckoo house and we starve. | |
| State of Minnesota Court of Appeals 18 Dec. 🌐 J.S. further said that on several occasions Juarez would threaten to put him in a ‘cuckoo house’ if he told anybody what was going on. |
(US) strong liquor.
| Raging Bull 226: I nursed that beautiful container of cuckoo juice carefully. |
(US) a psychiatric institution.
| [title] One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. | |
| Long Gray Line (1990) 327: Funny farm, loony bin, cuckoo’s nest, booby hatch, nut house, cracker box, psycho ward. |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
see bee’s knees n.