quacks

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of quack.

   Whenever a stranger approaches, the mallard quacks in alarm.

   She laughs because the toy quacks every time the baby squeezes it.

   Note

   Ducks are not the only subject: a queen bee is also said to quack when she makes a high-pitched sound at certain stages of her development, and in that use the verb takes no object. The verb can also describe someone practicing fraudulent medicine. An older use, making loud and empty pretensions, is now obsolete, so a braggart who quacks reads today as a deliberate archaism.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of quack.

   The medical board shut down several quacks who were peddling useless remedies.

   History is full of quacks who grew rich selling miracle cures.

   Note

   One spelling covers two very different plurals: the sounds ducks make, and the fraudulent healers who sell worthless cures. The second is an insult, so calling professionals quacks accuses them of charlatanry or incompetence. Applied jokingly to doctors in general, it softens into mild, humorous slang. Context almost always settles which plural is meant, and the same spelling also serves as the present-tense verb.

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