6 results for: canard

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
ca·nard    Audio Help   [kuh-nahrd; Fr. ka-nar] Pronunciation Key
–noun, plural -nards    Audio Help   [-nahrdz; Fr. -nar] Pronunciation Key.
1.a false or baseless, usually derogatory story, report, or rumor.
2.Cookery. a duck intended or used for food.
3.Aeronautics.
a.an airplane that has its horizontal stabilizer and elevators located forward of the wing.
b.Also called canard wing. one of two small lifting wings located in front of the main wings.
c.an early airplane having a pusher engine with the rudder and elevator assembly in front of the wings.

[Origin: 1840–50; < F: lit., duck; OF quanart drake, orig. cackler, equiv. to can(er) to cackle (of expressive orig.) + -art -art, as in mallart drake; see mallard]
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
canard

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© 2008 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
ca·nard    Audio Help   (kə-närd')  Pronunciation Key 
n.  
  1. An unfounded or false, deliberately misleading story.
    1. A short winglike control surface projecting from the fuselage of an aircraft, such as a space shuttle, mounted forward of the main wing and serving as a horizontal stabilizer.
    2. An aircraft whose horizontal stabilizing surfaces are forward of the main wing.


[French, duck, canard, probably from the phrase vendre un canard à moitié, to sell half a duck, to swindle, from Old French quanart, duck, from caner, to cackle, of imitative origin.]

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
canard 
before 1850, from Fr. "a hoax," lit. "a duck," said by Littré to be from the phrase vendre un canard à moitié "to half-sell a duck," thus, from some long-forgotten joke, "to cheat." From O.Fr. quanart, probably echoic of a duck's quack.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This
canard

noun
a deliberately misleading fabrication 

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Canard

Ca*nard"\, n. [F., properly, a duck.] An extravagant or absurd report or story; a fabricated sensational report or statement; esp. one set afloat in the newspapers to hoax the public.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.

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