Creak
AI In plain words
Writing a short explanation…
Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.
creak¹
- /kɹiːk/
Sounds like creek · Rhymes with -iːk
Where it comes from
From Middle English creken, criken, metathesis of Old English cearcian (“to chatter, creak, crash, gnash”), from Proto-West Germanic *krakōn (“to crash, crack, creak”), from Proto-Indo-European *gerh₂- (“to make a sound, cry hoarsely”), ultimately of imitative origin.
Compare also Old English crǣccettan, crācettan (“to croak”), Albanian grykë (“throat”). More at crack.
noun creaks · crik
- The sound produced by anything that creaks; a creaking. I won't say that I didn't close my eyes for a minute through the whole night, but if I did sleep it was only as a watchdog sleeps. A whisper or a creak of a board would have found me alert.
verb creaks · creaking · creaked · crik
- To make a prolonged sharp grating or squeaking sound, as by the friction of hard substances. Then when the four ropes were arranged the coffin was placed upon them. He watched it descend; it seemed descending for ever. At last a thud was heard; the ropes creaked as they were drawn up.
- To produce a creaking sound with. Creaking my shoes on the plain masonry.
- To suffer from strain or old age. Fascinating though this high-minded re-reading was, certain crucial joints of the play creaked a good deal under the strain.
Creak²
proper noun
- A surname.
