Welcome to the Punpedia entry on duck puns! This list starts with a bunch of duck-related sayings and then moves into puns based on words/concepts that are related to ducks (quack, mallard, waddle, etc.). We hope you find this list useful! 🙂
Note: There are no goose/geese puns in this entry – they’ll get their own entry soon. We do also have egg puns and chicken puns.
Duck Puns List
Each item in this list describes a pun, or a set of puns which can be made by applying a rule. If you know of any puns about ducks that we’re missing, please let us know in the comments at the end of this page! Without further ado, here’s the list of duck puns:
- Duck: There a few idioms/phrases relating to ducks that could be used as duck puns with the right context: “Duck and weave” and “A sitting duck” and “Like water off a duck’s back” and “Duck and cover” and “Duck out” and “Duck off” and “Ducking and diving” and “Get one’s ducks in a row” and “Golden duck” and “If it looks like a duck and walks like a duck and (etc.) like a duck, it probably is a duck” and “Take to like a duck to water” and “Lame duck” and “Ducked the question.”
- Dark → Duck: As in “The duck side of the moon” and “A duck horse” and “A shot in the duck” and “Be kept in the duck (about something)” and “Duck clouds on the horizon” and “It’s always duckest just before dawn” and “Deep, duck secret.”
- Dock → Duck: As in, “Charging duck” and “Waiting in the duck.”
- Tuck → Duck: As in, “Nip and duck” and “Duck in.”
- Deck → Duck: As in, “All hands on duck” and “Clear the ducks” and “Deal from the bottom of the duck” and “Duck of cards” and “All ducked out” and “Hit the duck” and “Not playing with a full duck.”
- Truck → Duck: As in, “By the duckload” and “Have no duck with” and “Fell off the back of a duck” and “Keep on duckin‘.”
- Dec* → Duck*: As in, “A steady duckline (decline)” and “A duckadent meal” and “Falling into duckay.”
- Swindler / Charlatan → Quack
- Walk → Waddle
- What’ll → Waddle: As in “Waddle we do without her?”
- My lord → Mallard: The “mallard” is the most common species of duck in the northern hemisphere.
- Web: Since ducks have webbed feet there’s the potential for a subtle pun in the word “web” referring to the internet, spider webs, or some other non-webbed-feet meaning of “web”.
- Drake: A “drake” is a male duck, but it also has several other meanings that could be used for wordplay: the famous musician, a dragon, a somewhat common first name.
- Float: Simply using the word “float” may be enough for a duck pun in some contexts: “Just trying to stay afloat” and “Floating around” and “Floating on air” and “Whatever floats your boat.”
- Swim: Phrases and words related to swimming can be simple duck puns: “The event went swimmingly” and “To swim upstream” and “Swimming with the fishes” and “Swim against the stream” and “Swim with the current” and “Make someone’s head swim” and “Sink or swim“
- Crack → Quack: As in “Not all it’s quacked up to be” and “I’ll take a quack at it” and “A hard nut to quack” and “Quack open a bottle” and “Quack a joke” and “Quack the whip” and “Fall between the quacks“
- *cac* → *quack*: As in, “A quackophony of noise” and “Quackao flavoured.” Other words that could work: quacktus (cactus) and quackle (cackle). Note: a cacophony is a jumbled, chaotic mess of sound.
- Crocodile → Quackodile
- Krak* → Quack*: Quacken (kraken) and Quackatoa (krakatoa). Note: Krakatoa is a volcanic island.
- Bill: As in “A dollar bill” and “Fit the bill“
- *duc* → *duck*: If a word contains the “duck” sound (or similar) it can be used as a silly duck pun: con-duck-tivity (conductivity), con-duck-tor, con-duck-t, con-duck-tion, a-duck-ately (adequately), de-duck-tion, era-duck-ation (eradication), deduckation (dedication), counterproducktive, induckator (indicator), introducktory, inducktion, producktive, producktivity, producktion, vinduckated, semiconducktors, seducktion, seducktive, reproducktion, misconduckt.
- *dic* → *duck*: As in, “Look it up in the ducktionary” and “As the new laws ducktate (dictate)” and “A real ducktator” and “Orthopaeduck shoes” and “Call a meduck (medic)” and “Nomaduck lifestyle” and “The perioduck table.” Other words that could work: duckotomy (dichotomy – a separation of something into two), ducktum (dictum – an authoritative statement), sporaduck (sporadic – happening rarely and randomly), aciduck (acidic), episoduck (episodic), meduckal (medical), raduckal (radical), preduckament (predicament), induckate (indicate), vinduckate (vindicate) and deduckate (dedicate).
- Doc* → Duck*: As in, “I need a ducktor!” and “Legal ducktrine (doctrine)” and “Official duckuments” and “Keep the ducket” and “A new vegan duckumentary” and “All in the duckumentation.”
- *duc* → *duck*: As in, “Code of conduckt” and “New and improved produckt.”
- Dakota → Duckota: (note: Dakota is the name of a few different towns and cities in the United States)
- *tech* → *duck*: As in, “Cutting-edge ducknology” and “Masterful ducknique” and “Ducknical information” and “Ducknically, yes.”
- Bird: There are quite a few phrases/idiom related to birds which can be used as duck puns in the right context: “A bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush” and “A bird-brain” and “Bird’s eye view” and “A little bird told me …” and “An early bird” and “Early bird gets the worm” and “Like a bird in a gilded cage” and “The birds and the bees” and “Birds of a feather flock together” and “Flip someone the bird” and “Free as a bird” and “The bird has flown” and “Sing like a bird” and “Jailbird“.
- Woman → Bird: Depending on where you’re from, the term “bird” may be slang for “woman”.
- Fly: There are a few phrases related to flying which can be used as duck puns in the right context: “Fly by the seat of your pants” and “Fly in the face of the evidence” and “Fly off the shelves” and “A fly on the wall” and “Fly by night” and “On the fly” and “Pigs might fly” and “Let fly” and “Watch the sparks fly” and “Fly in the ointment” and “Fly into a rage” and “Fly off the handle” and “Fly the coop” and “I’ve gotta fly” and “Fly the white flag” and “Wouldn’t hurt a fly“
- Feather: There are a few phrases related to feathers: “As light as a feather” and “In full feather” and “Feather in your cap (symbol of honour/achievement)” and “Feather one’s nest” and “Ruffle (a few/someone’s) feathers” and “You could have knocked me down with a feather“
- Father → Feather: As in “The founding feathers” and “Like feather, like son”
- Further → Feather: As in “Without feather ado” and “Look no feather” and “Kick the can feather down the road”
- Beak: “To wet one’s beak” and “beak” may be slang for nose in some places.
- Peek → Beak: As in “Beak-a-boo” and “Sneak beak“
- Peak → Beak: As in “Beak performance” and “They climbed to the beak“
- Wing: “Left wing / right wing” and “Let’s just wing it” and “Take under your wing” and “Clip someone’s wings” and “Spread your wings“
- Nest: “Leave the nest” and “Empty nest syndrome” and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Love nest” and “Stir up a hornet’s nest” and “A nest of vipers” and “A mare’s nest” and “Nest together”
- Next → Nest: As in “Nest minute …” and “Better luck nest time” and “Boy/girl nest door” and “Nest generation” and “Nest in line to the throne” and “Nest to nothing” and “Take it to the nest level” and “Nest to nothing” and “The nest big thing.” and “Cleanliness is next to godliness” and “In nest to no time” and “Nest to nothing” and “One day chicken and the nest day feathers” and “Catch the nest wave” and “As ___ as the nest girl/guy”
- Messed → Nest: As in, “You done nest up.”
- *net* → *nest*: As in, “The nestwork is down” and “Social nestworking” and “The five tenests of” and “Internest connection” and “Captain Planest.” Other words you could use: cabinest (cabinet), bonnest (bonnet), sonnest (sonnet) and magnest (magnet). Note: a sonnet is a type of poem. A tenet is a guiding principle.
- *nast* → *nest*: As in, “Cheap and nesty” and “A nesty piece of work.” Other words you could use: dynesty (dynasty), nestiness (nastiness), gymnest (gymnast) and monestery (monastery). Notes: a monastery is housing for monks and nuns. A dynasty is a line of rulers from the same family.
- *nest*: You can emphasise the “nest” in these words: earnest, honest, dishonest, soonest, anesthesia and amnesty. Note: amnesty is a pardon, usually for a political offence.
- *nist* → *nest*: As in, “The protagonest of the story” and “A misogynest comment” and “A powerful antagonest” and “A hedonestic lifestyle.” Other words you could use: feminest (feminist), chauvinest (chauvinist), communest (communist), adminestration (administration), adminester (administer), minester (minister) and anachronestic (anachronistic). Note: if something is anachronistic, then it doesn’t fit in with the time period.
- *nost* → *nest*: As in, “Filled with nestalgia” and “A nestalgic smell” and “An assault on the nestrils” and “Agnestic worldview” and “Diagnestic outcome.”
- Foul → Fowl: As in “By fair means or fowl” and “Cry fowl” and “Fowl language” and “Fowl up” and “No harm, no fowl” and “A fowl-mouthed person” and “Fowl play”
- Fell → Fowl: As in “In one fowl swoop” and “Little strokes fowl great oaks” and “The bottom fowl out of the market” and “She fowl asleep at the wheel” and “He fowl under her spell” and “It fowl into my lap” and “She fowl victim to the scammer”
- *fal* → *fowl*: As in, fowllacy (fallacy), fowlter (falter), fowlse (false), fowllout (fallout), buffowlo (buffalo), crestfowllen (crestfallen), defowlt (default), downfowl (downfall), fowlsetto (falsetto), fowlt (fault), fowlsify (falsify), freefowl (freefall), nightfowl (nightfall), waterfowl (waterfall).
- Flight: “Flight of fancy” and “Take flight” and “Flight of imagination” and “In full flight” and “Flight attendant”
- Migrate: Since some duck species migrate, you might be able to make a duck pun by simply using the term “migrate” or “migration” in place of “move” or similar words, depending on the context.
- Full-fledged / Fully-fledged: This means “Having achieved the full status of one’s title.” It comes from “fledged” which means “Gained flight feathers”.
- Poultry: While we usually think of chickens when we think of poultry, the word “poultry” refers to any bird that is domesticated for their eggs, meat or feathers. Ducks definitely fall under this bracket, so we’ve got some poultry puns here for you too:
- Paltry → Poultry: The term “paltry” means “small, insignificant or worthless” and the term “poultry” refers to domesticated chickens (and ducks, geese and other fowl). As in, “A poultry amount of work.”
- Poetry → Poultry: As in, “Poultry in motion,” and “Spoken word poultry.” Note: spoken word poetry is performative poetry that tends to involve themes of social justice.
- Poltergeist → Poultrygeist: As in, “Peeves the poultrygeist.” Note: Peeves is a famous poltergeist from the Harry Potter series.
Duck-Related Words
There are many more duck puns to be made! Here’s a list of duck-related concepts to help you come up with your own. If you come up with a new pun, please share it in the comments!
duckling, bird, water, mallard, paddle, swim, waddle, water bird, waterfowl, fowl, broadbill, feather, beak, avian, wing, flight, fledged, fledgling, webbed, migrate, aves, clutch, float, aquatic, coot, plumage, sheldrake, drake, egg, quack, quacking, ruddy duck, muscovy duck, merganser, pintail, goldeneye, canvasback, shoveler, bufflehead, gadwall, bummalo, redhead, douse, teal, musk duck, scaup, eider, rubber duck
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