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# duckling

«duckling» in Mova's school dictionary: **a baby duck** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a duckling, ducklings)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A duckling is a baby duck. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/duckling/#m1)

2) In stories, an «ugly duckling» is someone who seems plain or awkward at first but grows up to be beautiful or great. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/duckling/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In science lessons on life cycles, ducklings hatch from eggs, follow their mother and grow feathers; in stories like «The Ugly Duckling» the word carries the idea of growing up and changing. Phrases: «a mother duck and her ducklings», «fluffy ducklings», «an ugly duckling».

### examples

- Five fluffy ducklings followed their mother to the pond. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/duckling/#x1)
- The duckling hatched from its egg this morning. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/duckling/#x2)
- Ducklings can swim soon after they hatch. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/duckling/#x3)
- We watched the ducklings cross the road safely. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/duckling/#x4)
- In «The Ugly Duckling», the duckling grows into a swan. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/duckling/#x5)
- Don't feed the ducklings bread; it is bad for them. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/duckling/#x6)
- If there were 7 ducklings and 2 waddled away, 5 were left. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/duckling/#x7)
- "You don't understand me," said the duckling. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/duckling/#x8)

### note

Countable. The «-ling» ending means small or young, as in «gosling» (a young goose). A duckling is the young; «drake» is a male duck. Bread is not good food for ducks and ducklings.

### In the corpora

- [Ducklings follow the first moving thing they see after hatching, usually their mother; this is called imprinting.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/123-bugs-bunny-and-daffy-duck-real-rabbits-hares-and-ducks/15/)
- [In spring a mallard mother marches a wobbly line of ducklings across the path while a swan hisses at anyone near its nest.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/337-the-park-pond-through-the-year-ducks-coots-swans-dragonflies-and-ice/1/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «duckling» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/duckling/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.