Talk:decoy

Chambers 1908 definition

...is "an apparatus of hoops and network for trapping wild ducks". Is that covered by our sense of "a real or fake animal used by hunters to lure game", or is this apparatus not even a fake animal? Equinox ◑ 07:12, 7 February 2019 (UTC)

It certainly doesn't sound like a fake animal. It seems rather to more closely align with the etymology: "From Dutch de +‎ kooi, literally "the cage".". Perhaps this corresponded to an earlier sense in English too?

—DIV (1.145.45.168 06:11, 19 April 2023 (UTC))

The OED adds another sense to decoy similar to Chambers: "A pond [...] [with] netted channels [...] [whereby] wild ducks may be [...] [captured]". It explains that this sense (numbered 2 by them) is derived from the practice of using tame ducks to lead wild ducks into such channels.

I guess I should add something like this to the entry.

—DIV (1.145.45.168 06:18, 19 April 2023 (UTC))

Not sure how much of the other dictionaries' wording is fair game to use, so I had a go at paraphrasing & synthesising the two. —DIV (1.145.45.168 06:22, 19 April 2023 (UTC))