creek
Meaning
- (British) A small inlet, often saltwater, leading to the sea or to the main channel of a river, especially a river estuary.
- (British) The inner part of a port that is used as a dock for small boats.
- (Australia, Canada, New-Zealand, US) A stream of water, typically a stream of freshwater smaller than a river; in Australia, also used of river-sized bodies of water.
- Any turn or winding.
Synonyms
Translations
ruisseau
arroyo
Bach
ruscello
beek
riacho
rierol
çayFrequency
Pronounced as (IPA)
/kɹiːk/
Etymology
In summary
From Middle English creke, kreke, creake, of unclear origin. It existed alongside a second variant in Middle English cryke, krike, cricke, from Old Norse kriki. The forms creke, kreke, creake possibly continue Old English *creca (attested in the diminutive crecca (“creek, bay, wharf”) also found in Anglo-Latin as creca, crecca), from Proto-West Germanic *krekō, from Proto-Germanic *krekô, *krekuz (“corner, hook, angle, bend, bight”), from Proto-Indo-European *ger- (“to turn, to wind”). Compare typologically English bight, akin to bend, bow. See also Old Dutch creka, crika (“inlet, cove, creek”), Old Norse kriki (“cove, bight”), kríkr (“angle, corner, nook, bay”), Old Norse kraki (“pole with a hook, anchor”), and possibly Old Norse krókr (“hook, bend, bight”). Modern cognates include West Frisian kreek (“creek”), Dutch kreek (“creek, cove, inlet, bight”), and French crique (“cove”) (borrowed from Germanic). Early British colonists of Australia and the Americas used the term in the usual British way, to name inlets; as settlements followed the inlets upstream and inland, the names were retained and creek came to be used to refer to any small waterway. A similar semantic development occurred in Dutch and French, where the word originally meant "bay" but came to mean "stream" especially in the French and Dutch colonies (French Guiana, Dutch Guiana and Indonesia).
Notes
Sign in to write sticky notes
Start learning English with learnfeliz.
Practice speaking and memorizing "creek" and many other words and sentences in English.
'%3e%3c/path%3e%3c/g%3e%3cdefs%3e%3cmarker%20markerWidth='4.5'%20markerHeight='4.5'%20refX='2.25'%20refY='2.25'%20viewBox='0%200%204.5%204.5'%20orient='auto'%20id='SvgjsMarker4023'%3e%3cpolygon%20points='0,4.5%201.5,2.25%200,0%204.5,2.25'%20fill='white'%3e%3c/polygon%3e%3c/marker%3e%3c/defs%3e%3c/svg%3e)
