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creek - 7 dictionary results

creek

  [kreek, krik]
Use creek in a Sentence
–noun
1. U.S., Canada, and Australia. a stream smaller than a river.
2. a stream or channel in a coastal marsh.
3. Chiefly Atlantic States and British. a recess or inlet in the shore of the sea.
4. an estuary.
5. British Dialect. a narrow, winding passage or hidden recess.
—Idiom
6. up the creek, Slang. in a predicament; in a difficult or seemingly hopeless situation.
Origin:
1200–50; ME creke, var. of crike < ON kriki bend, crook

Creek

  [kreek]
–noun, plural Creeks, (especially collectively) Creek.
1. a member of a confederacy of North American Indians that in historic times occupied the greater part of Alabama and Georgia.
2. Also called Muskogee. a Muskogean language that is the language of the Creek Indians.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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creek   (krēk, krĭk)   
n.  
  1. A small stream, often a shallow or intermittent tributary to a river. Also called regionally branch, brook1, kill2, run.
  2. A channel or stream running through a salt marsh: tidal creeks teeming with shore wildlife.
  3. Chiefly British A small inlet in a shoreline, extending farther inland than a cove.

[Middle English creke, probably from Old Norse kriki, bend.]
Creek   (krēk)   
n.   pl. Creek or Creeks In all senses also called Muskogee1.
    1. A Native American people formerly inhabiting eastern Alabama, southwest Georgia, and northwest Florida and now located in central Oklahoma and southern Alabama. The Creek were removed to Indian Territory in the 1830s.
    2. A member of this people.
    3. The Muskogean language of the Creek.
    4. A Native American confederacy made up of the Creek and various smaller southeast tribes.
    5. A member of this confederacy.
    1. A Native American confederacy made up of the Creek and various smaller southeast tribes.
    2. A member of this confederacy.

[From the picturesque creeks near which they lived.]
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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Creek

Creek\ (kr[=e]k), n. [AS. crecca; akin to D. kreek, Icel. kriki crack, nook; cf. W. crig crack, crigyll ravine, creek. Cf. Crick, Crook.]

1. A small inlet or bay, narrower and extending further into the land than a cove; a recess in the shore of the sea, or of a river.

Each creek and cavern of the dangerous shore. --Cowper.

They discovered a certain creek, with a shore. --Acts xxvii. 39.

2. A stream of water smaller than a river and larger than a brook.

Lesser streams and rivulets are denominated creeks. --Goldsmith.

3. Any turn or winding.

The passages of alleys, creeks, and narrow lands. --Shak.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : creek
Spanish: cala, ensenada,
German: kleiner Wasserlauf,
Japanese: 入り江
More Translations »

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, 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." The Creek Indian tribe or confederation (1725) was named for the geographical feature. Native name is Muskogee.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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creek

see up a creek.

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