| 释义 |
▪ I. creek, n.1|kriːk|
Forms: α. 4 krike, 4–5 cryke, (kryk), 6–7 crike; β. 4–6 creke, (6 creake, crieque), 6–7 creeke, 7 creak, creick, 6– creek; γ. 6– crick.
[Three types of this are found, viz. (1) crike, cryke (ī), usual in ME., (2) creke, rare in ME. (see sense 7), but common in the 16th c. (whence the current creek), and (3) crick, only since 16th c. The first corresponds to F. crique (14th c. in Littré); the second to earlier Du. krēke (Kilian), mod.Du. kreek creek, bay, and to med. (Anglo) L. creca (sometimes crecca) creek. The form crick resembles Sw. dial krik bend, nook, corner, creek, cove (Rietz), and Icel. kriki crack, nook (handarkriki armpit), but is prob. an Eng. shortening of crique, crike. In many parts of U.S. crick is the common pronunciation of creek in the sense ‘stream’. The earlier history is not known, but the word (in French also) is generally supposed to be Germanic. In sense 4 the word appears to be related to crack; in 6 and 7 there appears to be association with crook.
A corresponding double form is seen in pike, peak, F. pic. It has been conjectured that the word is preserved in the OE. proper names Creacanford, Crecᵹanford, Creᵹanford, Crayford (in Kent), and Crecca-ᵹelád, Cricᵹelad, Flor. Criccelade, Cricklade (in Wilts); the former is impossible; in the latter crecca could not be the origin of either crike or creke, though some connexion is possible, if there were any reason to suppose that the meaning suits.]
I.
1. a. A narrow recess or inlet in the coast-line of the sea, or the tidal estuary of a river; an armlet of the sea which runs inland in a comparatively narrow channel and offers facilities for harbouring and unloading smaller ships.
(The first quot. may be of more general meaning.)
αc1250Gen. & Ex. 2947 In euerilc welle, in euerilc crike [printed trike] Men funden blod al witterlike. c1300Havelok 708 Hise ship..He dede it tere, an ful wel pike, Þat it ne doutede sond ne krike. c1386Chaucer Prol. 409 He knew..euery cryke in Britaigne and in Spayne. c1440Promp. Parv. 103 Cryke of watyr, scatera. 1542–3Act 34–5 Hen. VIII, c. 9 §1 Dwellers next vnto the streme of Seuerne, and vnto the crikes and pilles of y⊇ same from Kingrod vpward toward the City and Towne of Gloucester. 1626Capt. Smith Accid. Yng. Seamen 17 A channell, a bay, a rode..a crike, a riuer.
β1512Act 4 Hen. VIII, c. 1 §1 The Frenchemen..knowe..every haven and Creke within the sayde Countie. 1571Hanmer Chron. Irel. (1633) 155 The ship was by foule weather driven into a creick. 1622Callis Stat. Sewers (1647) 38 Creek of the sea is an Inlet of sea cornered into the main Land, shooting with a narrow passage into some Angle of the Land, and therein stretching it self more then ordinary into the Land. 1694Smith & Walford Acc. Sev. Late Voy. i. (1711) 39 A Creek two miles long, which is dry at Low Water, and not more than thirty foot broad. 1839Penny Cycl. XIII. 187/2 (Faversham) The creek or arm of the Swale on which the town stands is navigable for vessels of 150 tons. 1846McCulloch Acc. Brit. Empire (1854) I. 57 A long narrow saltwater creek, communicating with the sea at Portland Road.
γ1582N. Lichefield tr. Castanheda's Conq. E. Ind. 64 a, Foysts placed in euery Baye or Kricke to set upon him.
b. A small port or harbour; an inlet within the limits of a haven or port.
c. In the Customs administration of Great Britain, an inlet, etc., not of sufficient importance to be a separate Customs station, but included within the jurisdiction of another port station.
α1478Botoner Itin. (Nasmith 1778) 125 Pertinentes ad havyn de Falmouth sunt 147 portus et crykes.
β1486C'tess of Oxford in Four C. Eng. Lett. 7 That such wetche..be used and hadde in the poorts, and creks. 1588Act 1 Eliz. c. 11 §1 Conveying..their Wares..out of Creekes and Places where no Customer ys resident. 1642Milton Apol. Smect. (1851) 298 He must cut out large docks and creeks into his text to unlode the foolish frigate of his unseasonable autorities. 1789Ann. Reg. 133 A Creek in the language of the Customs, is a place included within the limits either of a head or member-port; as set out by the commissions of the Court of Exchequer; and at which officers competent to transact the coast business are stationed by order of the Board of Customs. 1863P. Barry Dockyard Econ. 211 Between the fourth and fifth slip there is a dock inlet or creek, which might at any time be enlarged into a dry dock or basin for ships of the largest class. 1876Act 39 & 40 Vict. c. 36 §11 Customs Laws Consolidation. The pre-existing limits of any port, sub-port, haven, creek, or legal quay.
γ1628Digby Voy. Medit. 47 Besides the port is but a little cricke.
d. Applied to any similar opening on the shore of a lake.
1810Scott Lady of L. i. xiv, Loch-Katrine..In all her length extended lay, With promontory, creek, and bay.
2. As part of a river or river-system.
a. An inlet or short arm of a river, such as runs up into the widened mouth of a ditch or small stream, or fills any short ravine or cutting that joins the river. (This is merely an occasional extension of sense 1.)
1577[see 8]. 1653Walton Angler 147 A He and a She Pike will usually go together out of a River into some ditch or creek. 1671Milton P.R. ii. 25 On the bank of Jordan, by a creek, Where winds with reeds and osiers whispering play. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) IV. 151 The otter has two different methods of fishing; the one..by pursuing [its prey] into some little creek, and seizing it there. 1814D. H. O'Brien Narr. Escape 109 On the banks of the Rhine..I..perceived a small Punt hauled into a creek. 1882M. E. Braddon Mt. Royal I. vi. 151 He knew every tributary, creek, and eyot.
b. In U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc.: A branch of a main river, a tributary river; a rivulet, brook, small stream, or run.
Probably the name was originally given by the explorers of a river to the various inlets or arms observed to run out of it, and of which only the mouths were seen in passing; when at a later period these ‘creeks’ were explored, they were often found to be tributaries of great length; but they retained the designation originally given, and ‘creek’ thus received an application entirely unknown in Great Britain.
1622in H. R. Shurtleff Log Cabin Myth (1939) 155 Creeks and Swamps as they call them..offer all aduantages to their..enimys. 1638in Massachusetts Hist. Soc. Coll. 3rd Ser. VI. 42 They..are dispersed securely in their plantations sixty miles along the coast, and within the land also, along some small creeks and rivers. 1674Pennsylv. Archives I. 34 On the East-side of a Small Creeke or gutt on this side the Single-tree. 1748F. Smith Voy. Disc. N.W. Pass. I. 132 Called Ten Shilling Creek, but not properly, it being a Branch of the great River. 1748Washington Jrnl. 25 Mar., Left Cresaps and went up to y⊇ mouth of Patersons Creek [a tributary of the Potomac]. 1793J. Hunter Hist. Jrnl. Port Jackson xxi. 516 In the afternoon a creek obliged them to leave the banks of the river, and go round its head, as it was too deep to cross. 1820S. Marsden Let. 8 May (1932) iv. 249 There are two warm springs opposite each other, one on each bank of the creek, about ten feet above the level of the fresh water which runs between them. 1836Backwoods of Canada 64 Besides numerous small streams, here called creeks, two considerable rivers..find an outlet. 1840N.Z. Jrnl. I. 292/1 A fine creek of water..runs down from the mountains..and wastes itself in the salt water. 1852G. B. Earp Gold Colonies Australia viii. 131 A ‘creek’, in New South Wales jargon, means a water-hole in the interior, and not an arm of the sea, as we understand it. 1857R. Paul Lett. Canterbury iv. 65 In the Australian Colonies, as in America, brooks are called creeks. 1879D. M. Wallace Australas. ii. 25 The drainage of the interior is effected by numerous creeks and water⁓courses which only run after periods of rain. c1848in H. Watterson Oddities S. Life & Char. (1883) 69 ‘You see that krick swamp?’ asked Suggs. 1963B. Pearson Coal Flat iv. 59 In a little clearing in the..young bush by the bank of the creek was Mrs Seldom's little house.
c. Phr. up the creek: (a) in a tight corner, in trouble; spec. pregnant; (b) crazy, eccentric. slang.
1941A. Miller in Kozlenko 100 Radio Plays 22/2, I mean that if I'm killed you're up the creek. 1943Hunt & Pringle Service Slang 68 Up the creek, lost, either on patrol or during a night out; off one's course. 1945Penguin New Writing XXIV. 32 Lord, it's my mortar lance corporal. If he breaks we'll be right up the creek. 1960H. Pinter Caretaker iii. 71 You don't know what you're doing... You're up the creek! You're half off! 1961H. E. Bates Day of Tortoise 52 I'm in trouble. I'm going to have a baby... I've had it. Good and proper. I'm up the creek. 1961J. Heller Catch-22 (1962) viii. 78 You really are up the creek, Popinjay. 1963E. Lambert Drip Dry Man x. 51, I know a girl who thinks her bloke may have put her up the creek. 1969I. Kemp Brit. G.I. in Vietnam vi. 134 ‘You okay?’ asked Donovan... ‘I thought you were properly up the creek.’
3. transf. senses akin to 1.
†a. Applied more widely and loosely to any narrow arm or corner of the sea. Obs.
1635N. Carpenter Geog. Del. ii. vi. 87 The Adriatic Sea in the inmost creeke neere Venice swels neere foure foote in hight. 1652Needham Selden's Mare Cl. 333 Jersey, and Garnesey..situated within that Creek of Sea which is made by the shore of Bretaign on the one side, and that of Normandie on the other.
b. A narrow corner of land running out from the main area; a narrow plain or recess running in between mountains. Cf. cove.
1649W. Blithe Eng. Improv. Impr. (1653) 56 Certain Creeks or corners of Land running into the up-lands. 1669Worlidge Syst. Agric. xi. §3 (1681) 233 To How the several Creeks, Corners, and Patches of your Land. 1856Stanley Sinai & Pal. ii. (1858) 136 The plains which run into the mountains are the creeks into which they [the Bedouins] naturally penetrate.
II.
†4. A cleft in the face of a rock, etc.; a crack, fissure, chink, crevice, cranny. Obs.
α1375Barbour Bruce x. 602 Thai clam into the crykis swa, Quhill half the craggis thai clummyn had. c1375Sc. Leg. Saints, Blasius 43 A kryk in to a crage he hade, & þare his dwellinge has he mad.
β, γ1570Levins Manip. 54 A creke, crick, fissura. Ibid. 120 A crick, rima. 1635R. Brathwait Arcad. Pr. 179 To wals and portels would he lay his eare, Through creeks and crannies too, that he might hear..desir'd applause.
5. a. A narrow or winding passage penetrating the interior of any place and passing out of sight; an out-of-the-way corner. to seek creeks: to seek a hiding-place. Obs. or dial.
1573Tusser Husb. (1878) 108 Tom Piper hath houen and puffed vp cheekes, If cheese be so houen, make Cisse to seeke creekes. 1582T. Watson Centurie of Loue xcv. (Arb.) 131 A Labyrinth is a place made full of turnings and creekes. 1590Shakes. Com. Err. iv. ii. 38 One that countermands The passages of allies, creekes and narrow lands. 1629Chapman Juvenal v. 15 Is no creek void? 1681Cotton Wond. Peak 52 The Cave..stretching itself..As if (past these blind Creeks) we now were come into the..Mountains Womb. 1750Gray Poems, Long Story 62 Each hole and cupboard they explore, Each creek and cranny of his chamber. 1808–25Jamieson s.v. Crykes, ‘Creeks and corners’ is still a common phrase. 1878Mrs. H. Wood Pomeroy Ab. (ed. 3) 112 We..looked in every crick and corner for it. 1883G. Allen in Colin Clout's Calendar 65 To fill up all the cricks and corners between other plants.
b. fig. A nook, a hidden or secret corner.
1577tr. Bullinger's Decades (1592) 341 And so must sounde doctrine keepe all the faithfull..in their duetie and quiet concorde, without creake or creauise. 1587Fleming Contn. Holinshed III. 1296/1 Throughlie view the hidden and couered creeks of our minds! 1614J. Day Day's Festivals (1615) 261 There is not a creeke or crany in the World, but seemes to bee fraught with it. c1620Z. Boyd Zion's Flowers (1855) 91 The crooked creekes Within my heart. 1715M. Davies Athen. Brit. i. 249 Jesuitical Creeks and Corners of Superstitious Romanism.
†c. Applied to the two cavities of the heart.
1621–51Burton Anat. Mel. i. i. i. iii, The Ventricles, Caules, Kells, Tunicles, Creeks, and parts of it. Ibid. i. i. ii. iv, This heart, though it be one sole member, yet it may be divided into two creeks right and left.
†6. A turn, a winding, as of a river or crooked way. Also fig. Obs.
1592Davies Immort. Soul xv. 4 As Streams, which with their winding Banks do play, Stopp'd by their Creeks, run softly thro' the Plain. 1596― Orchestra, I love Meander's path..Such winding slights, such turns and cricks he hath, Such creaks, such wrenches, and such dalliance. c1653England's Alarm in R. Bell Collect. Anc. Songs 1857 Painted harlots which they often meet At every creek and corner of the street. 1671J. Flavel Fount. of Life vii. 20 In every Creek and turning of your lives. a1680Charnock Attrib. God (1834) I. 648 He hath a prospect of every little creek in any design.
†7. fig. A crooked device; a trick, artifice, contrivance. Obs.
The early date of this sense makes its history and position doubtful.
c1386Chaucer Reeve's T. 131 (Ellesmere MS.) They wene þat no man may hem bigile..The moore queynte crekes [so 4 MSS.; Harl. knakkes] that they make The moore wol I stele. a1626W. Sclater in Spurgeon Treas. Dav. Ps. cxvi. 6 Without those slights, or creeks of carnal policy, for which men are in the world esteemed wise.
III. 8. attrib. and Comb., as creek-bed, creek-hole, creek-side, creek-timber (U.S.). creek-bottom U.S., level ground beside a stream or brook; creek-gum, the Australian river red gum, Eucalyptus camaldulensis.
1852Southern Lit. Messenger XVIII. 314/1 Ahead of us..is a creek-bed, fringed far back into the hills with tree and shrub. 1859K. Cornwallis New World I. 111 A creek-bed ran parallel with the road. 1936I. L. Idriess Cattle King iv. 30 Often you can dig in a dry creek-bed and obtain soakage water. 1965M. Shadbolt Among Cinders xx. 194 We walked..following a creek-bed.
1822J. Woods 2 Yrs. Eng. Prairie 224 On the creek bottoms, coffee-berry, poplar, pecon, white walnut. 1857F. L. Olmsted Journ. Texas 81 The soil of the creek-bottoms bears good cotton.
1898Morris Austral Eng. 178 Creek Gum. 1930V. Palmer Men are Human x. 89 The sun, visible through a gap in the creek-gums, hung fixed in the sky.
1748F. Smith Voy. Disc. N.W. Pass. I. 145 The Pieces of Swamp between this Channel and the Creek-head.
1577B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iv. (1586) 173 In the bankes and sides of these Ponds, you must have Bushes and Creeke holes, for the Fish to hide them in from the heate of the Sunne.
1879Whittier St. John xvii, From island and creek-side Her fishers shall throng.
1790J. Backus Diary in W. W. Backus Mem. Backus Fam. (1889) 93 Explored the bottom to the Creek timber land. 1836D. B. Edward Hist. Texas 36 We find..[the] prairie..relieved by creek timbers and solitary groves.
Hence ˈcreekward a., towards a creek.
1887C. C. Abbott Waste-Land Wand. iii. 85 Kept a creekward course until out of sight.
▪ II. creek, n.2 Obs. exc. Sc.
[Corresponds to early mod.Du. kriecke (also krieckelinghe ‘aurora rutilans, primum diluculum, matutinus splendor, crepusculum’, Kilian), Du. het krieken van den dag, LG. (Bremen) de krik vam dage, EFris. 't kriken fan de dag, the creek of day; f. earlier Du. kriecken, krieckelen (Kilian), mod.Du. krieken, EFris. kreken, kriken, krîken to break or burst through as the day-light. See also greking, and screak, skreigh, skrike.
Franck thinks the Du. word connected with the echoic root of Da. krekel cricket, the notion of a creaking sound passing into that of sudden breaking, as in crack: see also Doornkaat Koolman Ostfries. Wbch.]
The break (of day); dawn.
1567Turberv. Eglogs iii. 251 (T.) He wak'd at creek of day. 1710Ruddiman Gloss. Douglas' æneis s.v. Greking, Scot. dicimus Creek of day. 1723Ramsay Fair Assembly xxiv, Soon as the morning creek Has usher'd in the day. 1768Ross Helenore 46 An' ilka morning by the creek [later ed. screek] of day They're set to work.
▪ III. † creek, v. Obs.
[f. creek n.1]
1. intr. To run (up) as a creek or tidal inlet; to form a creek.
1538Leland Itin. III. 27 Trure Creeke is next, and goith up a 2 miles creking up from the principal streme, and creketh within halfe a mile of Trure. Ibid. III. 34 From Lantiant Pille to Blougham Pille or Creke nere a mile, it crekith up but a litle.
2. To bend, turn, wind. Hence ˈcreeking vbl. n., a bend, turn.
1610Holland Camden's Brit. i. 312 Arun..with sundry creekings..holdeth on his course to the sea. Ibid. 451 The salt water so creeketh about it [a town] that it almost insulateth it.
▪ IV. creek(e
obs. f. creak, crick n.1 |