beck
A significant nod, or motion of the head or hand, especially as a call or command.
Noun Norfolk, Northern England
- A stream or small river.
- […]Whence, climing to the Cleeves, her selfe she firmlie sets / The Bourns, the Brooks, the Becks, the Rills, the Rivilets[…] - 1612, Michael Drayton, chapter 1, in [John Selden], editor, Poly-Olbion. Or A...
- […] the sky is blue, and the larks are singing, and the becks and brooks are all brim full. - 1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter XIII, in Wuthering Heights: […], volume (please specify...
- This is the boundary at Earnleie: First from Earesbrook and [qu. to] the short thorns, […] and from the tree to Tudelesbeck, along the beck to the Severn, up along the Severn to Leofric's boundary, […] - 1908,...
Origin
From Middle English bek, bekk, becc, from Old English bæc, bec, bæċe, beċe (“beck, brook”), from Proto-Germanic *bakiz (“stream”). Cognate with Old Norse bekkr (“a stream or brook”), Low German bek, beck, German Bach, Dutch beek, Swedish bäck, Doublet of batch. More at beach.
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Noun Entry 2
- A significant nod, or motion of the head or hand, especially as a call or command.
- Ah, knovv you not the Citie fauours them, And they haue troupes of Souldiers at their beck? - c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares...
- Haste thee nymph, and bring with thee Jest and youthful Jollity, Quips and cranks, and wanton wiles, Nods, and becks, and wreathed smiles, - 1645, John Milton, L'Allegro:
- Then forthwith to him takes a choſen band Of Spirits likeſt to himſelf in guile To be at hand, and at his beck appear, - 1671, John Milton, “The First Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added,...
Origin
From Middle English bekken, a shortened form of Middle English bekenen, from Old English bēcnan, bēacnian (“to signify; beckon”), from Proto-West Germanic *baukn, from Proto-Germanic *baukną (“beacon”). More at beacon.
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Noun Entry 3
- A vat.
Origin
See back.
Forms
Noun alt of, obsolete
- Obsolete form of beak.
- Headed like owles, with beckes 4 uncomely bent - 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
Origin
From Middle English bec, bek, from Old French bec (“beak”).
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Derived
Verb
- To nod or motion with the head.
- When gold and silver becks me to come on. - c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […]...
- I'll buy so many acres of old Scotland and call them by the Lockerby's name; and I'll have nobles and great men come bowing and becking to David Lockerby as they do to Alexander Gordon. - 1896, Amelia Edith Huddleston...
- The becking waiter, that with wreathed smiles, wont to spread for Samuel and Bozzy their "supper of the gods," has long since pocketed his last sixpence; and vanished, sixpence and all, like a ghost at cock-crowing. -...