Crick
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Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.
crick¹
- /kɹɪk/
Rhymes with -ɪk
Where it comes from
From Middle English crike, crykke (“muscular spasm of the neck”), attested since the 1400s. Likely related to Old Norse kriki (“bend; nook”), whence also crick (“creek”) and creek.
noun cricks
- A painful stiffness in some part of the body, like the neck or back, which makes it difficult to move the affected body part for some time; a cramp. I had a crick in my neck for a week after ordering the wrong pillow at the Graylyn Estate […]
- A small jackscrew.
verb cricks · cricking · cricked
- To develop a crick (cramp, spasm). Stomach sleeping never worked for her because her neck cricked and pained in so short a time, that she never got the chance to fall asleep that way although the rest of her body snuggled well into the bed in that position.
- To cause to develop a crick; to create a crick in. He'd fallen asleep after all (and he'd done it in such a way as to crick his neck and his back and put his right arm to sleep; hardly a good start to a busy day) and now daylight was seeping through the bald patches in the thatch, ...
- To twist, bend, or contort, especially in a way that produces strain. He stopped a few feet from her, probably because he'd have to crick his neck to glare at her and that would just be embarrassing for him. “Dealing with garbage suits you.”
crick²
- /kɹɪk/
Rhymes with -ɪk
Where it comes from
See creek.
noun cricks
- Alternative form of creek.creek
crick³
- /kɹɪk/
Rhymes with -ɪk
Where it comes from
Uncertain. Possibly an alteration of creak; or perhaps from Middle English crikken, ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *krakōn, or Proto-West Germanic *krakkjan
verb cricks · cricking · cricked
- To make a sharp, penetrating sound; chirp.
noun cricks
- The creaking of a door, or a noise resembling it.
Crick⁴
Rhymes with -ɪk
Where it comes from
The Northamptonshire place-name is from Proto-Brythonic *krʉg (“heap, mound”) (itself from Proto-Celtic *krouk-; cf. Welsh crug).
proper noun
- A village and civil parish in West Northamptonshire, Northamptonshire, England, previously in Daventry district (OS grid ref SP5872).
- A small village in Caerwent community, Monmouthshire, Wales (OS grid ref ST4890).
- A habitational surname derived from the placename. Francis Crick was the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA.
