Forms: 7 iouk, iuke, juke, 8– juck. [Echoic: cf. CHUCK v.1
But perh. orig. a transferred sense of JOUK v.1, due to the accidental similarity to this of the sound uttered by the partridge when jouking, jugging, or settling down for the night. Quots. 1621, 1669. might refer to this act, rather than the call. Cf. also JUG v.3]
intr. To make a sound or call imitated by this word, as a partridge. Hence Jucking vbl. sb.
1611. Cotgr., Cabab, the chucking, churring, or iouking of a Partridge.
1621. Markham, Prev. Hunger (1655), 241. The place where you heard them iuke.
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric. (1681), 252. Imitating their Notes at their Juking-time, which is usually in the Morning and in the Evening.
1725. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Spread Net, You will soon know if there be any of the Birds by their Calling and Jucking.
1870. Blaine, Encycl. Rur. Sports, § 2619. They [partridges] have several calls…. One very important one, and to the practised sportsman readily recognised, is their jucking, when they settle down together for the night.
¶ Used in sense of JUG v.3; cf. also JOUK v.1
1828. Sporting Mag., XXII. 430. Bushing the fields where they are likely to juck or sleep.
