beck

See also: Beck and béck

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɛk/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛk

Etymology 1

From Middle English bek, bekk, becc, from Old Norse bekkr (“a stream or brook”), from Proto-Germanic *bakiz (“stream”).

Cognate with Low German bek, beck, German Bach, Dutch beek, Swedish bäck, Old English bæc, bec, bæċe, beċe (“beck, brook”). Doublet of batch. More at beach.

Noun

beck (plural becks)

1. (Norfolk, Northern English dialect) A stream or small river.
   • 1612, Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion song 1 p. 3[1]:

     […] Whence, climing to the Cleeves, her selfe she firmlie sets / The Bourns, the Brooks, the Becks, the Rills, the Rivilets […]

   • 1847, Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights, chapter XIII:

     {...} the sky is blue, and the larks are singing, and the becks and brooks are all brim full.

   • 1976, Archie Fisher (lyrics and music), “The Witch Of The West-Mer-Lands”, in The Man With A Rhyme, Sharon, CT: Folk Legacy Records:

     Beck water cold and clear, will never clean your wound

Synonyms

• brook
• burn

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• creek
• stream

Derived terms

• Troutbeck

Etymology 2

From Middle English bekken, a shortened form of Middle English bekenen, from Old English bēcnan, bēacnian (“to signify; beckon”), from Proto-West Germanic *baukn, from Proto-Germanic *baukną (“beacon”). More at beacon.

Noun

beck (plural becks)

1. A significant nod, or motion of the head or hand, especially as a call or command.
   • 1671, John Milton, “Book the Second”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J. M[acock] for John Starkey […], OCLC 228732398, page 40:

     Then forthwith to him takes a choſen band / Of Spirits likeſt to himſelf in guile / To be at hand, and at his beck appear,

Derived terms

• beck and call

Translations

A significant nod, or motion of the head or hand, especially as a call or command

• German: Wink (de) m

• Interlingue: signe
• Russian: мановение (ru) n (manovenije)

Verb

beck (third-person singular simple present becks, present participle becking, simple past and past participle becked)

1. (archaic) To nod or motion with the head.
   • c. 1596, William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, scene iii]:

     When gold and silver becks me to come on.

   • 1896, Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr, Winter Evening Tales‎^[2]:

     I'll buy so many acres of old Scotland and call them by the Lockerby's name; and I'll have nobles and great men come bowing and becking to David Lockerby as they do to Alexander Gordon.

   • 1881, Various, The Best of the World's Classics, Vol. V (of X) - Great Britain and Ireland III‎^[3]:

     The becking waiter, that with wreathed smiles, wont to spread for Samuel and Bozzy their "supper of the gods," has long since pocketed his last sixpence; and vanished, sixpence and all, like a ghost at cock-crowing.

Etymology 3

See back.

Noun

beck (plural becks)

1. A vat.

Etymology 4

From Middle English bec, bek, from Old French bec (“beak”),

Noun

beck (plural becks)

1. Obsolete form of beak.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for VVilliam Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, book 2, canto 9:

     Headed like owles, with beckes 4 uncomely bent

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Portuguese

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɛk(i)

Noun

beck m (plural becks)

1. Alternative spelling of beque

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Swedish

Etymology

From Middle Low German pik, from Latin pix. See also Dutch pek, German Pech.

Pronunciation

• Homophone: bäck

Noun

beck n

1. pitch; A dark, extremely viscous material remaining in still after distilling crude oil and tar.

Declension

Declension of beck
	Uncountable
	Indefinite	Definite
Nominative	beck	becket	—	—
Genitive	becks	beckets	—	—

Related terms

• becksvart