different between peak vs reak

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: p?k, IPA^(key): /pi?k/
• Rhymes: -i?k
• Homophones: peek, peke, pique

Etymology 1

From earlier peake, peek, peke, from Middle English *peke, *pek (attested in peked, variant of piked), itself an alteration of pike, pyke, pyk (“a sharp point, pike”), from Old English p?c, piic (“a pike, needle, pin, peak, pinnacle”), from Proto-Germanic *p?kaz (“peak”). Cognate with Dutch piek (“pike, point, summit, peak”), Danish pik (“pike, peak”), Swedish pik (“pike, lance, point, peak”), Norwegian pik (“peak, summit”). More at pike.

Noun

peak (plural peaks)

1. A point; the sharp end or top of anything that terminates in a point; as, the peak, or front, of a cap.
   • 2002, Joy of Cooking: All About Cookies ?ISBN, page 29:

     A less risky method is to lift your whisk or beater to check the condition of the peaks of the egg whites; the foam should be just stiff enough to stand up in well-defined, unwavering peaks.

2. The highest value reached by some quantity in a time period.

   Synonyms: apex, pinnacle; see also Thesaurus:apex

   • 2012 October 23, David Leonhardt, "[1]," New York Times (retrieved 24 October 2012):

     By last year, family income was 8 percent lower than it had been 11 years earlier, at its peak in 2000, according to inflation-adjusted numbers from the Census Bureau.

3. (geography) The top, or one of the tops, of a hill, mountain, or range, ending in a point.

   Synonyms: summit, top

4. (geography) The whole hill or mountain, especially when isolated.
   • 1898, Arnold Henry Savage Landor, In the Forbidden Land Chapter 62

     To the South we observed a large plain some ten miles wide, with snowy peaks rising on the farther side. In front was a hill projecting into the plain, on which stood a mani wall; and this latter discovery made me feel quite confident that I was on the high road to Lhassa.

5. (nautical) The upper aftermost corner of a fore-and-aft sail.

6. (nautical) The narrow part of a vessel's bow, or the hold within it.
7. (nautical) The extremity of an anchor fluke; the bill.
8. (mathematics) A local maximum of a function, e.g. for sine waves, each point at which the value of y is at its maximum.

Derived terms

Translations

Descendants

• ? Polish: pik

Verb

peak (third-person singular simple present peaks, present participle peaking, simple past and past participle peaked)

1. To reach a highest degree or maximum.

   Historians argue about when the Roman Empire began to peak and ultimately decay.

2. To rise or extend into a peak or point; to form, or appear as, a peak.
   • 1600, Philemon Holland, The Romane Historie

     There peaketh up a mightie high mounte.

3. (nautical, transitive) To raise the point of (a gaff) closer to perpendicular.

Synonyms

• culminate

Translations

Adjective

peak (comparative more peak, superlative most peak)

1. maximal, maximally quintessential or representative; constituting the culmination of
2. (MLE) Bad
3. (MLE) Unlucky; unfortunate

Synonyms

• (bad): See Thesaurus:bad
• (unlucky): See also Thesaurus:unlucky

Etymology 2

Unknown.

Verb

peak (third-person singular simple present peaks, present participle peaking, simple past and past participle peaked)

1. (intransitive) To become sick or wan.
2. (intransitive) To acquire sharpness of figure or features; hence, to look thin or sickly.
3. (intransitive) To pry; to peep slyly.

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

Related terms

• peaky

Etymology 3

Noun

peak (uncountable)

1. Alternative form of peag (“wampum”)

Etymology 4

Verb

peak

1. Misspelling of pique.

Anagrams

• Paek, kaep, kape

Basque

Noun

peak

1. absolutive plural of pe
2. ergative singular of pe

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??i?k/

Etymology 1

Compare Icelandic hrekkr, or English wreak vengeance.

Noun

reak (plural reaks)

1. (obsolete) A prank.

   • They play such reaks.

Etymology 2

Compare wrack (“seaweed”).

Noun

reak (plural reaks)

1. A rush.
   • a. 1578, Thomas Drant, A medicinable morall

     Feedes on reaks and reeds.

Anagrams

• KERA, Kear, Kera, Rake, aker, rake