creek

• POS: Noun

CIDE DICTIONARY

creek, n. [AS. crecca; akin to D. kreek, Icel. kriki crack, nook; cf. W. crig crack, crigyll ravine, creek. Cf. Crick, Crook.].

•  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.  [1913 Webster]

  "Each creek and cavern of the dangerous shore."  [1913 Webster]

  "They discovered a certain creek, with a shore."  [1913 Webster]
•  A stream of water smaller than a river and larger than a brook.  [1913 Webster]

  "Lesser streams and rivulets are denominated creeks."  [1913 Webster]
•  Any turn or winding.  [1913 Webster]

  "The passages of alleys, creeks, and narrow lands."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

creek, n.
1 Brit. a a small bay or harbour on a sea-coast. b a narrow inlet on a sea-coast or in a river-bank.
2 esp. US a tributary of a river; a stream.
3 Austral. & NZ a stream or brook.

Idiom

up the creek sl.
1 in difficulties or trouble.
2 crazy.

Etymology

ME crike f. ON kriki nook (or partly f. OF crique f. ON), & ME creke f. MDu. kreke (or f. crike by lengthening): ult. orig. unkn.

THESAURUS

creek

adolescent stream, arm, armlet, arroyo, bay, bayou, beck, belt, bight, boca, bourn, braided stream, branch, brook, brooklet, burn, channel, cove, crawl, creep, crick, ditch, edge, estuary, euripus, fjord, flowing stream, fluviation, fresh, freshet, frith, gill, glide, gulf, gumshoe, gut, harbor, inch, inlet, kill, kyle, lazy stream, loch, lurk, meandering stream, midchannel, midstream, millstream, mouse, mouth, moving road, narrow, narrow seas, narrows, natural harbor, navigable river, pussyfoot, race, racing stream, reach, rill, river, rivulet, road, roads, roadstead, run, rundle, runlet, runnel, shirk, sike, skulk, slide, slink, slip, slither, snake, sneak, sniggle, sound, spill stream, steal, strait, straits, stream, stream action, streamlet, subterranean river, tiptoe, wadi, watercourse, waterway, wriggle

ROGET THESAURUS

creek

Interval

N interval, interspace, separation, break, gap, opening, hole, chasm, hiatus, caesura, interruption, interregnum, interstice, lacuna, cleft, mesh, crevice, chink, rime, creek, cranny, crack, chap, slit, fissure, scissure, rift, flaw, breach, rent, gash, cut, leak, dike, ha-ha, gorge, defile, ravine, canon, crevasse, abyss, abysm, gulf, inlet, frith, strait, gully, pass, furrow, abra, barranca, barranco, clove, gulch, notch, yawning gulf, hiatus maxime, hiatus valde deflendus, parenthesis, void, incompleteness, period, interim (time), with an interval, far between, breachy, rimose, rimulose, at intervals, longo intervallo.

Lake

N gulf, lake, land covered with water, gulf, gulph, bay, inlet, bight, estuary, arm of the sea, bayou, fiord, armlet, frith, firth, ostiary, mouth, lagune, lagoon, indraught, cove, creek, natural harbor, roads, strait, narrows, Euripus, sound, belt, gut, kyles, continental slope, continental shelf, lake, loch, lough, mere, tarn, plash, broad, pond, pool, lin, puddle, slab, well, artesian well, standing water, dead water, sheet of water, fish pond, mill pond, ditch, dike, dyke, dam, reservoir, alberca, barachois, hog wallow, lacustrine.

River

N river, running water, jet, spirt, spurt, squirt, spout, spray, splash, rush, gush, jet d'eau, sluice, water spout, water fall, cascade, force, foss, lin, linn, ghyll, Niagara, cataract, rapids, white water, catadupe, cataclysm, debacle, inundation, deluge, chute, washout, rain, rainfall, serein, shower, scud, downpour, driving rain, drenching rain, cloudburst, hyetology, hyetography, predominance of Aquarius, reign of St. Swithin, mizzle, drizzle, stillicidum, plash, dropping, falling weather, northeaster, hurricane, typhoon, stream, course, flux, flow, profluence, effluence, defluxion, flowing, current, tide, race, coulee, spring, artesian well, fount, fountain, rill, rivulet, gill, gullet, rillet, streamlet, brooklet, branch, runnel, sike, burn, beck, creek, brook, bayou, stream, river, reach, tributary, geyser, spout, waterspout, body of water, torrent, rapids, flush, flood, swash, spring tide, high tide, full tide, bore, tidal bore, eagre, hygre, fresh, freshet, indraught, reflux, undercurrent, eddy, vortex, gurge, whirlpool, Maelstrom, regurgitation, overflow, confluence, corrivation, wave, billow, surge, swell, ripple, anerythmon gelasma, beach comber, riffle, rollers, ground swell, surf, breakers, white horses, whitecaps, rough sea, heavy sea, high seas, cross sea, long sea, short sea, chopping sea, hydrodynamics, hydraulics, hydraulicostatics, rain gauge, flowmeter, pegology, irrigation, pump, watering pot, watering cart, hydrant, syringe, garden hose, lawn spray, bhisti, mussuk, fluent, diffluent, profluent, affluent, tidal, flowing, meandering, meandry, meandrous, fluvial, fluviatile, streamy, showery, rainy, pluvial, stillicidous, stillatitious, for men may come and men may go but I go on foreve, that old man river, he just keeps rolling along.