Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

duck

2 verb
     
Related topics: Swimming
duck2
1 also duck down [intransitive and transitive] to lower your head or body very quickly, especially to avoid being seen or hit:
If she hadn't ducked, the ball would have hit her.
duck behind/under etc
Jamie saw his father coming and ducked quickly behind the wall.
Tim ducked down to comb his hair in the mirror.
She ducked her head to look more closely at the inscription.
2 [intransitive always + adverb/preposition] to move somewhere very quickly, especially to avoid being seen or to get away from someone
duck into
The two men ducked into a block of flats and disappeared.
duck out of
She ducked out of the door before he could stop her.
duck back
'Wait a minute', he called, ducking back inside.
3 [transitive] informal to avoid something, especially a difficult or unpleasant duty [= dodge]:
The ruling body wanted to duck the issue of whether players had been cheating.
Glazer ducked a question about his involvement in the bank scandal.
4 [transitive]DSS to push someone under water for a short time as a joke
duck somebody under something
Tom grabbed him from behind to duck him under the surface.

duck out of something

phrasal verb
to avoid doing something that you have to do or have promised to do:
I always ducked out of history lessons at school.
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

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