ducked

verb

past tense of duck
1
as in avoided
to get or keep away from (as a responsibility) through cleverness or trickery don't try to duck your commitment to spending Thanksgiving with your family by claiming you have to work

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in weaved
to move suddenly aside or to and fro duck behind a pillar before they see us

Synonyms & Similar Words
3
as in dipped
to sink or push (something) briefly into or as if into a liquid ducked the new camper in the lake as a joke

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of ducked So the team and I immediately dropped to the ground, ducked and covered. — ABC News, 24 May 2026 Emily tried to nudge her daughter closer, but Henley pivoted and ducked behind her legs. — Carly Tagen-Dye, PEOPLE, 1 May 2026 Soon enough, patrons figured out there was a movie star in their midst and began clamoring to meet him, so Damon ducked behind the bar to hide. — Madeleine Marr, Miami Herald, 29 June 2026 The Daily Mail reports that a woman dressed in a black strapless dress ducked under a line divider and started throwing punches at a woman in her pajamas. — Sean Joseph Outkick, FOXNews.com, 23 June 2026 One day, during an unrelenting downpour, Bonnet ducked into the drug store and asked the owner, Tom Zazzi, to give away her remaining sandwiches. — Nancy Vienneau, Southern Living, 27 June 2026 Collin Morikawa birdied 18 to catch Scheffler and ducked into the clubhouse at 20 under as the rains descended upon the TPC River Highlands. — Dom Amore, Hartford Courant, 29 June 2026 The nurse told investigators Samuelson saved his life, and according to court documents, surveillance video also shows that immediately after the nurse ducked into the hallway to get away from Grafton, Samuelson stopped moving and appeared motionless. — Todd Feurer, CBS News, 27 May 2026 The audio journalism winner was the staff of the podcast Pablo Torre Finds Out, which investigated how the Los Angeles Clippers basketball organization seemingly ducked the NBA salary cap rule by paying its star forward, Kawhi Leonard, extra money via an endorsement deal. — Neda Ulaby, NPR, 4 May 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for ducked
  1. avoided
  2. dodged
  3. dipped
  4. evaded
  5. immersed
  6. escaped
  7. drowned
Verb
  • Indeed, the folks in Akron, Amherst and Monroe, among other locales, have long awaited the winds of change, which have avoided blowing out the stale air caused by chronic losing.
    — Tom Layberger, Forbes.com, 6 July 2026
  • Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo avoided a suspension for the start of this year’s tournament after a foul during a World Cup qualifier match.
    — Yash Roy, Fortune, 5 July 2026
Definition of avoided
Verb
  • Congress has long dodged any Social Security reforms that would cut benefits, hike taxes, or do both.
    — Jason Ma, Fortune, 28 June 2026
  • Newsom's counter proposal calls for a federal minimum tax rate on Americans worth more than $100 million, rather than a state level one-time 5% wealth tax that the governor argues could be dodged by billionaires who could leave the state for another.
    — Juhi Doshi, ABC News, 26 June 2026
Definition of dodged
Verb
  • Wall Street was mixed in light trading early Thursday as chip stocks fell further and oil prices dipped near their levels before the Iran war began.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 2 July 2026
  • The number of Tarrant County kindergartners vaccinated against measles dipped slightly last school year, according to the latest data.
    — Ciara McCarthy, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 2 July 2026
Definition of dipped
Verb
  • On the phone, my friend Monika is telling me about a lost dog in her Salt Lake City neighborhood, a blue heeler who’s been seen limping and has evaded capture.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 29 June 2026
  • Russia intercepts most Ukrainian long-range drones but some have evaded Russian air defenses.
    — Joanna Kakissis, NPR, 27 June 2026
Definition of evaded
Verb
  • Even more surreal has been being immersed in it as part of The Star’s visual coverage.
    — Dominick Williams, Kansas City Star, 3 July 2026
  • This winning series captures a row of poplar trees planted along the banks of the River Po in Italy, which are natural guardians against flooding, now standing immersed in perfectly still water beneath soft, diffused light.
    — Cecilia Rodriguez, Forbes.com, 2 July 2026
Definition of immersed
Verb
  • William Carney, a man who escaped slavery to become a Union soldier in the Civil War and who was awarded the Medal of Honor for protecting the American flag from touching the ground during battle.
    — Diego Mendoza, CNN Money, 4 July 2026
  • Born enslaved in Maryland, Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) escaped to the North and emerged as the nation’s leading abolitionist and major literary political figure of his time.
    — Melia Patria, ABC News, 4 July 2026
Definition of escaped
Verb
  • In the Stockyards, more than 5,000 head of livestock had drowned.
    — Kansas City Public Library staff, Kansas City Star, 1 July 2026
  • Anne Arundel County fire officials are urging families to review pool safety after two young children drowned in separate residential pools last weekend.
    — Caroline Foreback, CBS News, 30 June 2026
Definition of drowned

Browse Nearby Words

duck
ducked
ducking
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Ducked.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ducked. Accessed 8 Jul. 2026.

Copy Citation

More from Merriam-Webster on ducked

Nglish: Translation of ducked for Spanish Speakers

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of gambol

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

Commonly Misspelled Words

How to Use Em Dashes (—), En Dashes (–) , and Hyphens (-)
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Longest Long Words List

One-Word Oxymorons: Bittersweet, Spendthrift, and More

Ten Words Ending with a Silent ‘T’

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Longest Long Words List
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
hangman letters and game
Hangman Lightning Round Figure out which word fits in the blanks.
See All