Sounded like a duck

QUACKED

Think of the noise a mallard might make when startled—it’s a sharp, two-syllable call that starts with a "q."

This clue plays on the sound a duck makes—"quack"—but turns it into a past-tense verb. The answer "QUACKED" fits because it describes the action of a duck making its noise, matching both the sound and the grammatical hint in "sounded like." It’s a straightforward example of a clue where the answer mimics the sound it’s describing.