shucks
Use Shucks in a sentence
noun
1.
a husk or pod, as the outer covering of corn, hickory nuts, chestnuts, etc.
2.
Usually, shucks. Informal. something useless or worthless: They don't care shucks about the project.
3.
the shell of an oyster or clam.
verb (used with object)
4.
to remove the shucks from: to shuck corn.
5.
to remove or discard as or like shucks; peel off: to shuck one's clothes.
6.
Slang. to get rid of (often followed by off ): a bad habit I couldn't shuck off for years.
00:10
Shucks
is always a great word to know.
So is ort. Does it mean:
| a calculus or concretion found in the stomach or intestines of certain animals, esp. ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison. |
| a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal. |
interjection
7.
shucks, Informal. (used as a mild exclamation of disgust or regret.)
Origin:
1665–75; origin uncertain
1665–75; origin uncertain
Related forms
shuck·er, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged
verb (used with object) Slang.
to deceive or lie to.
Origin:
1955–60; origin uncertain; perhaps from exclamation shucks! (see shuck1) taken as a feigned sign of rural ignorance or a sham apology
1955–60; origin uncertain; perhaps from exclamation shucks! (see shuck1) taken as a feigned sign of rural ignorance or a sham apology
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Link To shucks
Collins
World English Dictionary
shuck (ʃʌk) ![[Click for IPA pronunciation guide]](http://static.sfdict.com/dictstatic/g/d/dictionary_questionbutton_default.gif) | |
| —n | |
| 1. | the outer covering of something, such as the husk of a grain of maize, a pea pod, or an oyster shell |
| —vb | |
| 2. | to remove the shucks from |
| 3. | informal chiefly (US), (Canadian) to throw off or remove (clothes, etc) |
| [C17: American dialect, of unknown origin] | |
| 'shucker | |
| —n | |
| shucks (ʃʌks) | |
| —pl n | |
| 1. | something of little value (esp in the phrase not worth shucks) |
| —interj | |
| 2. | an exclamation of disappointment, annoyance, etc |
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History
shuck
1819, "to remove the shucks from," from noun (1674) meaning "husk, pod, shell," Amer.Eng., of unknown origin. Later used in ref. to the shells of oysters and clams (1872). Interjection shucks is 1847, from sense of "something valueless" (not worth shucks). Many extended senses are from the notion of
"stripping" an ear of corn, or from the capers associated with husking frolics; e.g. "to strip (off) one's clothes" (1848) and "to deceive, swindle, cheat, fool" (1959); phrase shucking and jiving "fooling, deceiving" is suggested from 1966, in U.S. black English, but cf. shuck (v.) a slang term among "cool musicians" for "to improvise chords, esp. to a piece of music one does not know" (1957), and shuck (n.) "a theft or fraud," in use by 1950s among U.S. blacks.
"[B]lack senses probably fr[om] the fact that black slaves sang and shouted gleefully during corn-shucking season, and this behavior, along with lying and teasing, became a part of the protective and evasive behavior normally adopted towards white people in "traditional" race relations; the sense of "swindle" is perhaps related to the mid-1800s term to be shucked out, "be defeated, be denied victory," which suggests that the notion of stripping someone as an ear of corn is stripped may be basic in the semantics." ["Dictionary of American Slang"]
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Slang Dictionary
shuck definition[ʃək]
|
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Example sentences
Those who watched his career are familiar with his aw-shucks charisma and boyish affability.
Much of the art world accepted him for what he was even as he hid his own self-doubt under a gee-shucks insouciance.
We might call this the aw-shucks, gosh-darn explanation of weirdly wrong intelligence estimates.
Corn is about ready to harvest with shucks opening and there is no green foliage present.
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