Forms: 3 kakelen, cakelen, 4–5 cackle(n, 5 cakele, -yn, kakyl, 5–6 cakle, 6 cakyll, cackyll, -el, cacle, 7 cakell, 6– cackle; Sc. 6 kekkyl, kekell, 7 kekcle: see also KECKLE. [Early ME. cakelen: corresp. to Du. kakelen, LG. kâkeln, Sw. kackla, Da. kagle; cf. also Ger. gackeln, Du. gaggelen, and GAGGLE. The evidence does not make it certain to what extent the word has arisen separately in different langs. in imitation of the animal sounds, or has been adopted from one language into another. The word may have been WGer. or at least Saxon: but the Eng. may also have been from Scandinavian.]
1. intr. To make a noise as a hen, especially after laying an egg; also to make a noise as a goose (which is more specifically to GAGGLE).
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 66. Þe hen, hwon heo haueð ileid, ne con buten kakelen.
1393. Gower, Conf., II. 264. Somtime cacleth as a hen.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 58. Cakelyn of hennys, gracillo.
c. 1470. Hors, Shepe, & G. (1822), 17. The ghoos may cakle.
1549. Compl. Scot., vi. 39. Quhilk gart the hennis kekkyl.
1552. Huloet, Cakle lyke a henne, glocio.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., V. i. 105. If she should sing by day When euery Goose is cackling.
1660. W. Secker, Nonsuch Prof., 43. Some persons are like hens that after laying must be cackling.
a. 1680. Butler, Rem. (1759), II. 139. Like … a Wildgoose always cackling when he is upon the Wing.
1824. W. Irving, T. Trav., II. 253. A hen could not cackle but she was on the alert to secure the new-laid egg.
b. Said of the chattering of other birds, esp. crows, jackdaws, magpies and starlings. Obs.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 88. Ane rikelot þet cakeleð hire al þet heo isihð.
1530. Lyndesay, Test. Papyngo, 94. Bark lyk ane Dog, and kekell lyke ane Ka.
1553. T. Wilson, Rhet., 117 b. Some cackels lyke a henne or a Jack dawe.
1613. Markham, Eng. Husbandman, I. i. iii. (1635), 13. If Crowes flocke much together, and cakell and talke.
1675–7. Hobbes, Homer, 275. A cloud of starelings cackle when they fly.
2. fig. Said of persons: a. To be full of noisy and inconsequent talk; to talk glibly, be loquacious, prate, chatter. b. To talk loudly or fussily about a petty achievement, like a hen after laying an egg. c. To chuckle, ‘to laugh, to giggle’ (J.).
1530. Palsgr., 473/1. Howe these women cackyll nowe they have dyned.
1599. Broughton’s Lett., ix. 34. Cease … cackling of the vnlearnednes of thy betters.
1712. Arbuthnot, John Bull (1727), 70. Then Nic. grinned, cackled, and laughed.
1847. Disraeli, Tancred, II. v. (1871), 78. The peers cackle as if they had laid an egg.
1860. Gen. P. Thompson, Audi Alt., III. cxix. 59. It is also the business of a sensible government, not to cackle on its discoveries.
1860. Thackeray, Four Georges, iii. (1861), 150. The equerries and women in waiting … cackled over their tea.
3. trans. To utter with or express by cackling.
c. 1225. Ancr. R., 66. Ȝif hit nere icakeled.
1857. Livingstone, Trav., vi. 114. Any man who … cackles forth a torrent of vocables.
1880. Howells, Undisc. Country, i. 28. The ladies … now rose … and joyously cackled satisfaction.
