# ducking

Pronunciation: say "DUK-ing" /ˈdʌkɪŋ/

## Verb

1. Present participle of duck. — present participle and gerund of duck
   - Simple: Present participle of duck. Use this form when the action is happening right now.
   - _Ducking the reporters' questions, the senator hurried to her car._
   - _She is ducking under the fence to reach the open field._

## Noun

2. An act of crouching or lowering the body, often to hide or to avoid being seen.
   - Simple: A fast drop down to hide or stay out of sight.
   - _One swift ducking under the counter and she was completely out of sight._
   - _His sudden ducking let the snowball sail harmlessly over his head._
3. An act of plunging a person or thing briefly under water.
   - Simple: The act of pushing someone down into water for a short time.
   - _A cold ducking in the river was the usual penalty for losing the bet._
   - _She got a thorough ducking when her canoe tipped over near the bank._
5. The practice of quietly leaving a small rubber duck on a stranger's parked Jeep as a kind gesture.
   - Simple: The friendly act of secretly leaving a rubber duck on someone's parked Jeep.
   - _Members of the club organize a ducking each spring, hiding rubber ducks on one another's Jeeps._
   - _After her own surprise, she paid it forward with some ducking, tucking a tiny duck under a wiper._

## Adjective

4. Euphemistic form of fucking. *(slang)* — Euphemistic form of fucking.
   - Simple: A polite, joking way to say fucking. It stands in for the swear word.
   - _I can't find my ducking phone anywhere in this mess._
   - _Turn off that ducking alarm before it wakes the whole house._

## Origin

This is a nominalization of the verb "duck," itself a denominal verb from the noun "duck." That noun comes from a shortening of "rubber duck," formed from "rubber" plus "duck."

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