Alright, I'm just not feeling creative today, but I wanted to contribute to the #freewrite challenge since I'd taken a few days off. Instead of entertaining you with some real or imagined story, I figured I just try to come up with all of the meanings in English for "duck" that I could.
Here's the link to the Freewrite Challenge https://steemit.com/freewrite/@mariannewest/day-76-5-minute-freewrite-prompt-ducks
The bird: Obviously, a duck is a bird. That's probably what the prompt intended us to write about since it clearly said "ducks" and not duck. Did you know that ducks are related to swans, so the story about the ugly duckling is actually a story about family? Deep, huh?
Getting out of the way: Of course, when we duck, we squat down to exercise or get out of the way of some incoming threat. Do ducks duck? I don't know. I suppose they do when they duck under the water to catch a tasty bite.
To Shakespeare: "O dainty duck, o deare!" Sometimes he also said, "Ducky." It seems like that's a colloquial endearment I might have also heard in an old movie, but it's not common used where I live.
Cloth: Duck refers some kind of cloth that's similar to canvas, I think.
NOT TAPE: Sheesh, it's duct tape and not duck tape, though lots of people say that. I think that there might be a brand of tape called Duck Tape just because of this.
Yikes, according to a comment, I may have been wrong about this. Apparently, people did call it duck tape because it was made from the kind of fabric called duck. That's what I get for not checking facts when I'm sure I'm right. I checked the Wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duct_tape#History_and_etymology
Of course, we also use duck in different expressions. For instance, a lame duck refers to a politician who is near the end of his or her term and may not be as effective. To duck away, could mean to hide or make yourself scarce.
Of course, there is the famous duck face, which is a sort of pout. It can be sort of sexy or sort of silly. There's even an article about what making a duck face for a camera reveals about your personality. Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/what-duck-face-reveals-about-your-personality-2016-7
I hope you found this work a few moments of scanning. I actually found some of the meanings of duck more interesting than I thought it would be. :)
*If I missed any meanings of duck, please let me know in the comments!
