different between creek vs trickle

English

Alternative forms

• crick (dialectical US)
• crik (eye dialect)

Etymology

From Middle English cr?ke, from Old Norse kriki. Early British colonists of Australia and the Americas used the term in the usual British way, to name inlets; as settlements followed the inlets upstream and inland, the names were retained and creek was reinterpreted as a general term for a small waterway.. Compare Dutch kreek, and French crique, both from the same source.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: kr?k IPA^(key): /k?i?k/
• (US) IPA^(key): /k?ik/, (Appalachia) /k??k/
• Rhymes: -i?k, -?k
• Homophones: creak, crick

Noun

creek (plural creeks)

1. (Britain) A small inlet or bay, often saltwater, narrower and extending farther into the land than a cove; a recess in the shore of the sea, or of a river; the inner part of a port that is used as a dock for small boats.
2. (Australia, New Zealand, Canada, US) A stream of water (often freshwater) smaller than a river and larger than a brook; in Australia, also used of river-sized waterbodies.
3. Any turn or winding.

Synonyms

• beck, brook, burn, stream
• (regional US terms:) run (Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia), brook (New England), branch (Southern US), bayou (Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and Southeastern Texas)

Derived terms

Descendants

• Broome Pearling Lugger Pidgin: kriki
• Sranan Tongo: kriki

Translations

References

Anagrams

• ecker

English

Etymology

Originally of tears; from strickle, frequentative of to strike, by elision (probably because tears trickle is easier to pronounce than tears strickle).

For other similar cases of incorrect division, see also apron, daffodil, newt, nickname, orange, umpire.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?t??k?l/
• Rhymes: -?k?l

Noun

trickle (plural trickles)

1. A very thin river.

   The brook had shrunk to a mere trickle.

2. A very thin flow; the act of trickling.

   The tap of the washbasin in my bedroom is leaking and the trickle drives me mad at night.

   • 1897, James Bryce, Impressions of South Africa

     The streams that run south and east from the mountains to the coast are short and rapid torrents after a storm, but at other times dwindle to feeble trickles of mud.

Translations

Verb

trickle (third-person singular simple present trickles, present participle trickling, simple past and past participle trickled)

1. (transitive) to pour a liquid in a very thin stream, or so that drops fall continuously.

   The doctor trickled some iodine on the wound.

2. (intransitive) to flow in a very thin stream or drop continuously.

   Here the water just trickles along, but later it becomes a torrent.

   • 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula Chapter 21

     Her white night-dress was smeared with blood, and a thin stream trickled down the man's bare chest which was shown by his torn-open dress.
3. (intransitive) To move or roll slowly.

Derived terms

• trickle truth

Translations

Anagrams

• tickler