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Creek

[kreek, krik]

Example Sentences Origin

noun

U.S., Canada, and Australia. a stream smaller than a river.

a stream or channel in a coastal marsh.

Chiefly Atlantic States and British. a recess or inlet in the shore of the sea.

an estuary.

British Dialect. a narrow, winding passage or hidden recess.

Idiom

up the creek, Slang. in a predicament; in a difficult or seemingly hopeless situation.

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Creek is always a great word to know.

So is horse feathers. Does it mean:

money; cash.

rubbish; nonsense; bunk (used to express contemptuous rejection).

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Origin:
1200–50; Middle English creke, variant of crike < Old Norse kriki bend, crook

Related forms

sub·creek, noun

Can be confused: 1. brook, creek, river, stream (see synonym note at stream); 2. creak, creek, Creek, croak.

Example Sentences

The new name, which takes effect immediately, refers to the building's proximity to a creek that runs through the campus.

And so it is today when the monsoon comes, flooding the slum with black creek water and sewage.

In fact, in place of the old mills on the creek that lies on the other side of our street there's a small hydroelectric generator.

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Dictionary.com Unabridged

noun, plural Creeks, (especially collectively) Creek.

a member of a confederacy of North American Indians that in historic times occupied the greater part of Alabama and Georgia.

Also called Muskogee. a Muskogean language that is the language of the Creek Indians.

Can be confused: creak, creek, Creek, croak.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To Creek

Collins

World English Dictionary

creek (kriːk)

—n
1.	chiefly (Brit) a narrow inlet or bay, esp of the sea
2.	(US), (Canadian), (Austral), (NZ) a small stream or tributary
3.	slang up the creek in trouble; in a difficult position

[C13: from Old Norse kriki nook; related to Middle Dutch krēke creek, inlet]

Creek (kriːk)

—n , Creek, Creeks
1.	a member of a confederacy of Native American peoples formerly living in Georgia and Alabama, now chiefly in Oklahoma
2.	any of the languages of these peoples, belonging to the Muskhogean family

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

creek

1449, creke "narrow inlet in a coastline," from kryk (c.1230), probably from O.N. kriki "nook," perhaps infl. by Anglo-Fr. crique, itself from a Scand. source via Norman. Perhaps ultimately related to crook. Extended to "inlet or short arm of a river" by 1577, which probably led to use for "small stream,

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brook" in Amer.Eng. (1622). Also used there and in Canada, Australia, New Zealand for "branch of a main river," possibly from explorers moving up main rivers and seeing and noting mouths of tributaries without knowing they often were extensive rivers of their own. Slang phrase up the creek "in trouble," often esp. "pregnant," first recorded 1941, perhaps originally armed forces slang for "lost while on patrol."

Creek

Indian tribe or confederation, 1725, named for creek, the geographical feature, and abbreviated from Ochese Creek Indians, from the stream in Ga. where English first encountered them. Native name is Muskogee, a word of uncertain origin.

COLLAPSE

American Heritage

Idioms & Phrases

creek

see up a creek.