# cuckooing

Pronunciation: US say "KOO-koo-ing" /ˈkuː.kuː.ɪŋ/; UK say "KUU-koo-ing" /ˈkʊk.uː.ɪŋ/

## Noun

1. A crime in which a criminal gang takes over a vulnerable person's home and uses it as a base for its activities. *(UK)*
   - Simple: A crime where a gang takes over the home of someone easy to bully and runs its crimes from there.
   - _Officers say cuckooing is often used to hide drug dealing in quiet residential streets._
   - _A housing charity helped him get his flat back after a cuckooing by a local gang._
2. The call made by a cuckoo.
   - Simple: The sound a cuckoo bird makes.
   - _Far off in the valley, the steady cuckooing of a single bird carried across the fields._
   - _Hikers often hear cuckooing long before they ever see the bird._

## Verb

3. Present participle and gerund of cuckoo. — present participle and gerund of cuckoo
   - Simple: Present participle and gerund of cuckoo. Use it after is or was, or to name the action.
   - _Somewhere beyond the hedge a bird was cuckooing, steady as a clock._
   - _Detectives accused the gang of cuckooing the homes of elderly residents._

## Origin

The UK sense comes by analogy from the cuckoo's habit of brood parasitism, laying its eggs in the nests of other birds.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/cuckooing (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).