Crossword Dictionary
DUCK
duck - v
to move (the head or body) quickly downwards or away; "Before he could duck, another stone struck him"
submerge or plunge suddenly
Synonyms
bend, bow, crouch, dive, dodge, elude, escape, evade, shun, sidestep, bob, dip, double, fence, lower, lurch, parry, plunge, shirk, shy away, stoop, submerge
Examples
I just need a place to duck out of the rain for a bit.
He slid up right behind her before she could duck into a shop.
Rita would convey the message to Jonathan Winston as well allowing Dean to temporarily duck having to explain to the FBI why he played cowboy and lost the tail instead of getting the plate number.
Etymology
c. 1300, "to plunge into" (transitive); mid-14c., "to suddenly go under water and immediately withdraw" (intransitive); from a presumed Old English *ducan "to duck," found only in derivative duce (n.) "duck" (but there are cognate words in other Germanic languages, such as Old High German tuhhan "to dip," German tauchen "to dive," Old Frisian duka, Middle Dutch duken "to dip, dive," Dutch duiken), from Proto-Germanic *dukjanan.