α. late Middle English crike, late Middle English crikke, late Middle English cryk, late Middle English crykke, 1500s crycke, 1500s–1600s cricke, 1500s– crick.
β. 1700s creek, 1800s creak.
crickn.1
/krɪk/, U.S. /krɪk/ 1. Sudden stiffness or immobility of the neck, back, or other part of the body, typically resulting from spasm of one or more muscles; an instance of this.Now rare or disused as a mass noun.
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the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > diseases of tissue > disorders affecting muscles > [noun] > spasm or cramp
cramp1374
emprosthotonosa1398
spasmc1400
spasmusc1400
crickc1424
crumpa1500
misspringinga1500
spasma?1541
convulsion1585
catch1830
kink1848
tonus1891
c1424 in C. L. Kingsford Stonor Lett. & Papers (1919) I. 35 (MED) If I may ride for þe crikke, I shall kome to ȝow.
c1475 (c1450) P. Idley Instr. to his Son (Cambr.) (1935) ii. A. 2208 (MED) Thow might stomble and kacche the crike.
1538 T. Elyot Dict. Opisthotonos, the cricke, or disease, whiche letteth a man to tourne his necke.
1582 R. Madox in E. G. R. Taylor Troublesome Voy. Capt. Edw. Fenton (1959) 178 Mr Hood was very syck, for he had a crick in his neck.
1598 J. Florio Worlde of Wordes Troubled with a cricke or wrinch in the necke or backe.
1639 T. Fuller Hist. Holy Warre Ep. Ded. sig. *3v To have such a crick in his neck that he cannot look backward.
1668 R. L'Estrange tr. F. G. de Quevedo y Villegas Visions (1708) 173 'Tis nothing..but a Crick she has got in her Back.
1702 J. Moyle Chirurgus Marinus (ed. 4) xvii. 142 Sometimes Men get Cricks in their Backs that disable them, so that they cannot stand upright.
1749 M. Delany Autobiogr. & Corr. (1861) II. 520 A violent creek has seized Mr. Monck's neck, and he can't stir.
1856 G. J. Whyte-Melville Kate Coventry xiv You..study the thermometer till you get a crick in your neck.
1877 J. D. Hooker in L. Huxley Life & Lett. J. D. Hooker (1918) II. 142 [I get home] with a crick in my shoulder..from pump-handling some 500 people.
1903 W. D. Howells Lett. Home xxiv. 156 I..showed her the view of the other side of the street, with the rock in the Park that you can get a glimpse of if you don't mind a crick in your neck.
1938 E. Goudge Towers in Mist (1998) x. 234 She had a crick in her neck from kneeling so straight and a touch of indigestion inside.
1992 Cent. Home June–July 9 (advt.) Lugging wooden picnic tables, benches, or lounges can not only scrape gouges in your lawn, but put a crick in your back as well.
2004 Golf Punk Dec. 81 At the end of the day, to iron the cricks out of your shoulders, there's a choice of several open-air hot-tubs and swimming pools.
2. Stiffness, muscular spasm or other dysfunction affecting the neck or back of a horse; an instance of this.
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the world > health and disease > ill health > animal disease or disorder > disorders of horses > [noun] > other disorders of horses
trench?a1450
colt-evilc1460
affreyd?1523
cholera1566
crick1566
incording1566
leprosy1566
taint1566
eyesore1576
fistula1576
wrench1578
birth1600
garrot1600
stithy1600
stifling1601
stranglings1601
hungry evil1607
pose1607
crest-fall1609
pompardy1627
felteric1639
quick-scab1639
shingles1639
clap1684
sudden taking1688
bunches1706
flanks1706
strangles1706
chest-founderingc1720
body-founder1737
influenza1792
foundering1802
horse-sickness1822
stag-evil1823
strangullion1830
shivering1847
dourine1864
swamp fever1870
African horse sickness1874
horse-pox1884
African horse disease1888
wind-stroke1890
thump1891
leucoencephalitis1909
western equine encephalitis1933
stachybotryotoxicosis1945
rhinopneumonitis1957
1566 T. Blundeville Order curing Horses Dis. f. 32, in Fower Offices Horsemanshippe A Crycke is no other thing, but a kinde of Convulsion.
1607 E. Topsell Hist. Foure-footed Beastes 364 The Cricke in the necke..is, when the Horsse cannot turne his neck any maner of way, but hold it stil right forth.
1727 R. Bradley Chomel's Dictionaire Oeconomique (Dublin ed.) Flanks, a Distemper in Horses, the same being a Wrench, Crick, Stroke, or other Hurt got in his Back.
1796 S. Drinkwater Every Man his own Farrier 87 The horse, when walked, appears to have a crick in the back.
1841 New Monthly Mag. Aug. 458 A broken-backed one, a screw with a crick in his back, is not very common; but a horse whose vertebral process has been injured, obviously is good for nothing for the saddle.
1901 Twelfth Biennial Rep. Kansas State Board Agric. ii. 316 There is a lateral, balancing movement at the loins, principally noticeable while the animal is in the act of trotting—a peculiar motion, sometimes referred to as a ‘crick in the back’, or what the French call a ‘tour de bateau’.
1998 Mountain Democrat (Placerville, Calif.) 4 Dec. 1/1 Despite her fragile appearance, lithe Shelly Perkins can manipulate a 1000-pound horse with a ‘crick’ in his neck to a balanced, healthy state of being.
Compounds
General attributive and parasynthetic, in crick back, crick-backed, crick neck, etc.
ΚΠ
1774 Mrs. Harris in Priv. Lett. Ld. Malmesbury I. 276 She has had what was formerly named a crick neck, but the modern phrase now for those vulgar things is rheumatism.
1831 La Belle Assemblée Oct. 152/1 Our gracious Queen got a crick neck, as a reward for her civility, in returning the salutations of her right faithful people.
1867 Brit. Farmer's Mag. 53 117 He had nothing to beat beyond Bedminster, as Durham was changed for O Rest, a crick-backed horse.
1911 A. Eger Baker's Theory & Pract. Vet. Med. (ed. 3) 242 Tabes dorsalis or locomotor ataxia is the same as sclerosis of the cord. It is sometimes called ‘crick back’.
1927 Folk-lore 38 413 Break off one of the pods and throw it at him and he will have crick neck too.
1996 Independent on Sunday 6 Oct. (Review Suppl.) 55/1 Seventy-foot palm trees..soar up towards the remote glass roof.., and the guests wander about, crick-necked and flabbergasted.
2004 R. Hoffman Chicken Dreaming Corn 157 All that night Morris had not slept, envisioning Jonas, weathered and crick-backed, stretched crone on the floor.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, November 2010; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
crickn.2
/krɪk/, U.S. /krɪk/ rare.† 1. = gaffle n. 1. Obsolete.
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society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > device for discharging missiles > archer's weapons > [noun] > bow > crossbow > device for bending crossbow
brakec1380
vicea1400
windas1443
tyllole1489
gaffle1497
rack1513
goat's footc1515
bending1530
crick1530
bender1684
garrot1824
moulinet1846
1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 210/2 Cricke to bende a crosbowe with, cranequin.
2. A device for lifting heavy weights from below, a jack (Jack n.2 11).
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society > occupation and work > equipment > lifting or hoisting equipment > [noun] > jacks
screw1404
scalet1640
German devil1670
Jack1679
screw jack1719
spring-jack1724
jackscrew?1735
crick1775
fence-jack1874
swing-jack1875
wagon-jack1875
windlass-jack1875
truck-jack1877
setter1895
1775 J. Ash New Dict. Eng. Lang. Cric,..a machine, a kind of jack.
1798 G. Gregory Econ. Nature (ed. 2) I. i. vii. 76 The crick or jack is another machine by which a great resistance or weight may be overcome by a small force.
1867 W. H. Smyth & E. Belcher Sailor's Word-bk. Crick, a small jack-screw.
1935 W. Fortescue Perfume from Provence (1946) 137 He gradually levered up ‘Desirée’ with the aid of my crick and his own, while my..friend and I..hung on to the car on the farther side.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, November 2010; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
crickn.3
/krɪk/, U.S. /krɪk/ North American.
= creek n.1
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the world > the earth > land > land mass > shore or bank > bend in coast > [noun] > inlet in river or sea > in river
fleetc893
pillOE
pow1481
creek1577
crick1608
pokelogan1848
1608 J. Smith True Relation Occurr. in Virginia 24 The Bay where he dwelleth hath in it 3 cricks.
1681 in C. W. Manwaring Digest Early Connecticut Probate Rec. (1904) I. 325 On the North sid the Cricke which Runs through my Land.
c1724 Rec. of Meadows in B. D. Hicks Rec. N. & S. Hempstead, Long Island (1897) II. 292 These two lots are bounded one the east by the Crick.
1779 R. Putnam Mem. (1903) 138 I asked them if there was no weidening place up the crick.
1822 J. Fowler Jrnl. 157 We commenced Crossing the Crick Early, it being about mid Side deep to the Horses.
1843 ‘R. Carlton’ New Purchase I. xxvii. 261 If I don't row you up salt crick in less nor no time, my name's not Sam Townsend.
1884 Cent. Mag. Dec. 278/2 So I tramped off in a hurry for the crick, and crowded through the willows, red-hot to jump aboard and get out of that awful country.
1956 M. L. Settle O Beulah Land Prol. iii. 46 I..caught up with him jest as he was fordin his horse over the crick.
1972 R. Davies Manticore (1976) ii. i. 91 The people down by the crick were my other grandparents.
1993 B. Kingsolver Pigs in Heaven ii. xx. 191 A great big water hole down in the crick where the kids love to go jump in and fish and all.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, November 2010; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
† crickn.4
Obsolete. rare.
= cricket n.1
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society > society and the community > social relations > association, fellowship, or companionship > a companion or associate > [noun] > pleasant
fellowa1225
bully rook1602
crick1616
bon enfant1836
jollier1896
1616 R. Sheldon Suruey Miracles Church of Rome 323 One Swithune Wels (a merry Cricke, and boun Companion).
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, November 2010; most recently modified version published online December 2020).
crickv.1
/krɪk/, U.S. /krɪk/ intransitive. To make a thin, sharp sound, esp. (of a cricket or other insect) to make a sharp chirping sound.
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the world > animals > by noises > voice or sound made by animal > make sound [verb (intransitive)] > whistle or chirp
whistlec1000
wlitec1200
pipec1275
chirkc1386
chirtc1386
pulea1398
whitter1513
cheepa1522
peep1534
churtle1570
chipper1593
crick1601
grill1688
crink1781
yeep1834
chip1868
1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World I. xi. xxviii. 326 Creckets that haunt the hearth and stocke of chimnies, where they make many holes, and lie cricking alowd in the night [Fr. servent de reueille-matin toute la nuyt, L. nocturno stridore uocales].
1699 A. Boyer Royal Dict. To crick, to creek.
1793 G. Robertson & M. Roberston Let. in J. W. Fortescue Following Drum (1931) iv. 61 We can hear them crick..& cry every night.
1840 Monthly Chron. 6 323 In Italy, at noon, in some of the woody places, the noise these cicadæ make, several hundreds of them cricking at once, is very great.
1939 D. C. Peatty Flowering Earth (1991) xvii. 219 The swamp frogs pipped and cricked.
1962 V. Nabokov Pale Fire 123 A cricket cricked.
2007 Boston Globe (Nexis) 23 Aug. (Calendar section) 6 You'll go to sleep in a pine-scented room listening to crickets cricking and wake up to butterflies hovering in the golden rod meadow outside the door.
Derivatives
ˈcricking n.
ΚΠ
1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World I. 353 Others make a cricking [Fr. criquettent] with a certain long traine, as the Grashoppers.
1693 T. Urquhart & P. A. Motteux tr. F. Rabelais 3rd Bk. Wks. xiii. 107 The..mumbling of Rabets, cricking of Ferrets.
a1856 R. S. Gedney Poet. Wks. (1857) 141 Nothing stirred Save now and then the chirrup of a bird Or cricking of an insect in the grass.
1992 J. McKenna Fallen 54 I listened to the cricking of the laburnum pods in the front garden, to the cracking of the roof timbers in the hot darkness.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, November 2010; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
crickv.2
/krɪk/, U.S. /krɪk/ transitive. To twist or strain (one's neck or back), causing painful stiffness. Also (in quot. 1861): †to stretch or manipulate the joints of (a person) (obsolete).
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the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > diseases of tissue > disorders affecting muscles > affect with muscular disorder [verb (transitive)] > of person: spasm or cramp > of part: spasm or cramp
crampishc1374
cramp1602
convulse1691
crick1850
1850 R. Reece Whittington, Junior, & Sensation Cat iii. 25 I've nearly cricked my neck With staring up.
1861 H. Mayhew London Labour (new ed.) III. 90/2 He used to take my legs and stretch them, and work them round in their sockets,..That is what they called being ‘cricked’.
1884 J. Colborne With Hicks Pasha in Soudan 48 I can't say I saw it, as I did not want to crick my neck.
1952 A. White Sugar House ii. ix. 183 I'd do anything. Swat through books..go round cricking my neck in art galleries..if I thought it would be any use.
1993 S. Gracie in M. Bradbury & A. Motion New Writing 2 71 The long and the short of it was that Lubowicz fell off a ladder, cricked his back, and Porbright rescued him.
1997 New Scientist 26 July 62/2 Beware, you'll crick your neck while consulting the bits of text at right angles to the rest.
Derivatives
cricked adj.
ΚΠ
1878 Bristol Mercury 15 Apr. 3/3 It [sc. a horse] has what was known as a ‘cricked back’.
1924 Transatlantic Rev. 2 652 Only an accident to the bus would have justified the cricked neck and goggling eyes.
2007 Independent 28 Nov. (Property section) 7/3 A sliver of concrete known euphemistically as a ‘Juliette balcony’, from where, at the risk of a cricked neck, one might just catch a glimpse of the sludgy banks of the Thames.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, November 2010; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1c1424
n.21530n.31608
n.41616v.11601v.21850