different between crick vs rick

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k??k/
• Rhymes: -?k

Etymology 1

From Middle English crike, crikke (“muscular spasm of the neck”), attested since the 1400s. Likely related to Old Norse kriki (“bend; nook”), whence also crick (“creek”) and creek.

Noun

crick (plural cricks)

1. A painful muscular cramp or spasm of some part of the body, as of the neck or back, making it difficult to move the part affected. (Compare catch.)
2. A small jackscrew.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Knight to this entry?)

Translations

Verb

crick (third-person singular simple present cricks, present participle cricking, simple past and past participle cricked)

1. To develop a crick (cramp, spasm).
   • 2008, Jacqueline Signori, Ada (?ISBN), page 48:

     Stomach sleeping never worked for her because her neck cricked and pained in so short a time, that she never got the chance to fall asleep that way although the rest of her body snuggled well into the bed in that position.

   • 2014, Yrsa Sigurdardottir, I Remember You: A Ghost Story, Minotaur Books (?ISBN)

     “He's upstairs.” As soon as she said this, a loud knocking came from the crawl space below. Katrín was so startled that her neck cricked painfully as she looked down. Adrenalin rushed through her veins and the pain in her fingers disappeared.

2. To cause to develop a crick; to create a crick in.
   • 2013, K. J. Parker, Pattern, Orbit (?ISBN)

     He'd fallen asleep after all (and he'd done it in such a way as to crick his neck and his back and put his right arm to sleep; hardly a good start to a busy day) and now daylight was seeping through the bald patches in the thatch, ...

3. To twist, bend, or contort, especially in a way that produces strain.
   • 2011, Camy Tang, Protection for Hire: A Novel, Zondervan (?ISBN)

     He stopped a few feet from her, probably because he'd have to crick his neck to glare at her and that would just be embarrassing for him. “Dealing with garbage suits you.”

   • 2012, Doug Johnstone, Hit and Run, Faber & Faber (?ISBN)

     The throbbing pain that even now was coursing through his neck and shoulders, making him crick his neck.

   • 2015, Emma Miller, A Match for Addy, Harlequin (?ISBN), page 121:

     Addy was tall for a woman, and he liked that because he didn't have to crick his neck ...

   • 2018, Tim Major, Machineries of Mercy, ChiZine Publications (?ISBN)

     Now she was able to stand on her feet, so long as she kept her neck cricked.

Etymology 2

See creek.

Noun

crick (plural cricks)

1. (Appalachia) Alternative form of creek

Etymology 3

See creak.

Noun

crick (plural cricks)

1. The creaking of a door, or a noise resembling it.

References

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /??k/

  Rhymes: -?k

Etymology 1

From Middle English *rykke, from Old English hrycce (“rick, heap, pile”), cognate with Scots ruk (“rick”), Norwegian ruka (“rick, haystack”). Related also to Old English hr?ac (“rick, stack”), from Proto-Germanic *hraukaz (“heap”). Further relations: Dutch rook, Norwegian rauk, Swedish rök, Icelandic hraukur.

Alternative forms

• ruck

Noun

rick (plural ricks)

1. Straw, hay etc. stored in a stack for winter fodder, commonly protected with thatch.

   • There is a remnant still of last year's golden clusters of beehive ricks, rising at intervals beyond the hedgerows; […].
2. (US) A stack of wood, especially cut to a regular length; also used as a measure of wood, typically four by eight feet.

Derived terms

• rickburner

Translations

Verb

rick (third-person singular simple present ricks, present participle ricking, simple past and past participle ricked)

1. To heap up (hay, etc.) in ricks.

Etymology 2

From earlier wrick, from Middle English wricken, wrikken (“to move back and forth”), probably from Middle Dutch *verwricken or Middle Low German vorwricken. Cognate with West Frisian wrikke, wrikje, Dutch wrikken, Low German wricken, German wricken, Danish vrikke, Swedish vricka.

Verb

rick (third-person singular simple present ricks, present participle ricking, simple past and past participle ricked)

1. To slightly sprain or strain the neck, back, ankle etc.

Etymology 3

Abbreviated form from recruit.

Noun

rick (plural ricks)

1. (military, derogatory and demeaning) A brand new (naive) boot camp inductee.

   No turning back now rick, you are the property of the US government now.

Anagrams

• crik