# creek

Pronunciation: say "KREEK" US /kɹik/, UK /kɹiːk/

## Noun

1. A stream, typically of fresh water and smaller than a river; in Australia, also a body of water the size of a river. *(Australia, Canada, New Zealand, US)*
   - Simple: A stream of water, usually fresh and smaller than a river. In Australia, it can be as big as a river.
   - _The kids spent the afternoon catching crawdads in the creek behind the farmhouse._
   - _The station homestead stood above a creek so broad and deep that visitors took it for a river._
2. A small, narrow inlet, often of salt water, leading from the sea or the main channel of a river, especially in an estuary; such an inlet often serves as a sheltered mooring for small boats. *(British)*
   - Simple: A narrow stretch of water that runs into the land from the sea or a river, sometimes used for keeping small boats.
   - _At low tide the creek drains to a ribbon of mud, and the moored dinghies settle on their keels._
   - _We rowed up the creek from the estuary, past the salt marsh and the old oyster beds._

## Other meanings

- (noun) Any turn or winding in the course of something.

## Origin

Middle English had two forms. Creke, creake is of unclear origin and possibly continues Old English *creca, from Proto-Germanic *krikô, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ger- ("to wind, to turn"). Beside it stood cryke, crike, probably from Old Norse kriki ("cove, bight"). Related words include Dutch kreek ("creek, cove, inlet, bight"), West Frisian kreek, and French crique ("cove"), which was borrowed from Germanic. Early British settlers in Australia and the Americas used it for inlets, and as settlement followed the inlets upstream and inland, it came to mean any small waterway.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/creek (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).