duck

1. (transitive) To quickly lower (the head or body), often in order to prevent it from being struck by something.Examples: "As some raw youth in country bred, To arms by thirst of honour led, When at a skirmish first he hears The bullets whistling round his ears, Will duck his head aside"; "Rimmer ducked his body low into his chair, so just his head remained above the table top, and peered past the backs of the examinees in front of him, waiting for the adjudicator to make his move."Synonyms: diptransitive

2. (transitive) To lower (something) into water; to thrust or plunge under liquid and suddenly withdraw.Examples: "Adams after ducking the Squire tvvice or thrice leaped out of the Tub, […]"Synonyms: dip, dunktransitive

3. (intransitive) To go under the surface of water and immediately reappear; to plunge one's head into water or other liquid.Examples: "[…]In Tiber ducking thrice, by break of day[…]"intransitive

4. (intransitive) To bow.Examples: "The Learned pate / Duckes to the Golden Foole."intransitive

5. (transitive, figurative) To evade doing something, especially something considered a responsibility.Examples: "Victorian women choosing to duck the demands of domestic life to spend their time doing something they enjoyed is hardly a novel idea."; "But pressed by Labour's Marsha de Cordov in the House of Commons on June 29, on "whether he plans to reduce the total number of ticket offices", Merriman ducked the question but confirmed that the Government wants to close ticket offices."; "That was the moment, but Senate Republicans ducked it."figurativelytransitive

6. (transitive) To lower the volume of (a sound) so that other sounds in the mix can be heard more clearly.Examples: "The music is ducked under the voice."transitive