[f. prec.]

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  1.  intr. To utter the call of the cuckoo, or an imitation of it.

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1620.  Rowlands, Night-Raven, 4.

        Nor with your hopping cage birds sing,
Nor cuckow it about the spring.

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1656.  W. D., trans., Comenius’ Gate Lat. Unl., § 142. 43. The Cuckoe which bewrayeth herself by cuckoing.

4

1879.  Baring-Gould, Germany, II. 310. Clocks…, some that strike, some that cuckoo.

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  2.  trans. To repeat incessantly and without variation.

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1648.  Cuckows Nest, in Harl. Misc., 1745, V. 552. These always … cuckow forth one Tune, No King, no King.

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1822.  Blackw. Mag., XII. 633. He cuckooed the old song of reduction.

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1857.  E. FitzGerald, Lett. (1889), I. 251. Their Religion and Philosophy … always seems to me cuckooed over like a borrowed thing.

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  3.  To push out from the nest like a cuckoo.

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1870.  W. Thornbury, Tour Eng., I. i. 19. The government had an eye on him, and soon cuckooed him out by passing a bill to prevent clergymen being representatives in parliament.

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