Meaning & use
puck
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountablesport
The small, hard rubber disc that players hit and chase across the ice in ice hockey.
Grammar: Takes a plural: three pucks. Players shoot, pass or drop the puck.
Patterns
- shoot the puck
- pass the puck to someone
- the puck drops
She flicked the puck past the goalie and the arena erupted.
Before each game the referee drops the puck between the two centers.
A stray puck flew over the glass and landed in the crowd.
proper nounproperliterary
A playful, tricksy fairy from English folklore, best known as a character in Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Grammar: Always written with a capital letter and used without an article: Puck plays tricks.
Patterns
- Puck plays a trick on someone
In the school production, Puck leapt across the stage and sprinkled glitter over the sleeping lovers.
Our English teacher called the prankster in the story a modern Puck.
Puck delights in causing confusion among the characters in the forest.
Word forms
| plural | pucks |
|---|
Common combinations
- drop the puck
- The mayor was invited to drop the puck at the opening game.
- chase the puck
- The young forwards chased the puck into every corner.
- win the puck
- He won the puck along the boards and sent it straight back to his defender.
- slap the puck
- The captain slapped the puck from the blue line.
- lose the puck
- They lost the puck in the neutral zone and gave up a quick goal.
Word family
- puckish adjective
- playfully mischievous, like the fairy Puck
- puckishly adverb
- in a mischievous, teasing way
- puckishness noun
- the quality of playful mischief
Commonly confused: puck or pock? puck or pluck?
puck vs pock
A pock is a small mark or pit on the skin, as left by smallpox; it has nothing to do with the game of hockey.
puck vs pluck
Pluck means to pull or pick something off, or to have courage; it sounds similar but has a different meaning from puck.
Practice
The referee blew the whistle, and the two centers waited for him to drop the ______ to start play.
Choose one answer.
In ice hockey the referee drops the puck to begin a play. A stick is something players carry, so it is not what gets dropped for the face-off.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “puck”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.