duckess en · NOUN
Etymology
From duck + -ess.
Meanings
-
(rare) A female duck.
Harold does not like to shoot little ducks and duckesses himself, but he got some swell camera shots of some of his friends in action.
1953, The Fortnightly Review of the Chicago Dental Society, page 18, column 2:And here come Sophie and her four offsprings which we have been unable thus far to segregate into ducks and duckesses. Manchester, the biggest of the lot, makes a specialty of pecking at my shoelaces.
1938 September 17, “From the Editor’s Easy Chair”, in Welford Beaton, editor, Hollywood Spectator, thirteenth year, volume 13, number 17, Los Angeles, Calif., section “Mental Meanderings”, page six, column 2:But the thrust that got Eustace in the pin feathers was: “I know why you’re such a model drake,—it’s because your wife is the only duckess in the barnyard.” “Not at all!” he replied. “The principles for which I stand are absolute. They would be the same if there were a hundred duckesses besides Gertrude!”
1920, Lawton Mackall, “Beyond the Paling”, in Scrambled Eggs, Stewart & Kidd Company, page 37:Three duckesses had fluffy, little broods parading along behind, ready to claim their waterfront real estate as soon as the ice stopped being ice.
2012, Robert L. Payne, A Side Order of Truth, Xlibris, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 481:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| duckesses | Number=Plur | lexicographic |