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beck - 14 dictionary results

beck

1  [bek]
Use beck in a Sentence
–noun
1. a gesture used to signal, summon, or direct someone.
2. Chiefly Scot. a bow or curtsy of greeting.
–verb (used with object), verb (used without object)
3. Archaic. beckon.
—Idiom
4. at someone's beck and call, ready to do someone's bidding; subject to someone's slightest wish: He has three servants at his beck and call.
Origin:
1325–75; ME becken, short var. of becnen to beckon

beck

2  [bek]
–noun North England.
a brook, esp. a swiftly running stream with steep banks.
Origin:
1250–1300; ME becc < Scand; cf. ON bekkr; akin to OE bece, D beek, G Bach brook, MIr bual flowing water < IE *bhog-lā

beck

3  [bek]
–verb (used with object) Metalworking.
to form (a billet or the like) into a tire or hoop by rolling or hammering on a mandrel or anvil.
Origin:
v. use of beck (n.), shortening of beck-iron, var. of bick-iron

Beck

  [bek]
–noun
Dave, 1894–1993, U.S. labor leader: president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters 1952–57.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To beck
beck 1   (běk)   
n.  A gesture of beckoning or summons.

[Middle English bek, from bekken, to beckon, alteration of bekenen; see beckon.]
beck 2   (běk)   
n.   Chiefly British
A small brook; a creek.

[Middle English, from Old Norse bekkr; see bhegw- in Indo-European roots.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Beck

Beck\, n. See Beak. [Obs.] --Spenser.

Beck

Beck\, n. [OE. bek, AS. becc; akin to Icel. bekkr brook, OHG. pah, G. bach.] A small brook.

The brooks, the becks, the rills. --Drayton.

Beck

Beck\, n. A vat. See Back.

Beck

Beck\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Becked; p. pr. & vb. n. Becking.] [Contr. of beckon.] To nod, or make a sign with the head or hand. [Archaic] --Drayton.

Beck

Beck\, v. t. To notify or call by a nod, or a motion of the head or hand; to intimate a command to. [Archaic]

When gold and silver becks me to come on. --Shak.

Beck

Beck\, n. A significant nod, or motion of the head or hand, esp. as a call or command.

They have troops of soldiers at their beck. --Shak.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : beck
Spanish: a disposición de,
German: auf den leisesten Wink gehorchen,
Japanese: 人の言うなりになって
More Translations »

beck 
1382, "mute signal," from bekken (v.), var. of becnan "to beckon" (see beckon). Transferred sense of "slightest indication of will" is from 1470.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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beck

see at someone's beck and call.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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