ree
Noun pluralrees
Pluralrees
- 1Wild, fierce or outrageous in behavior, or overexcited to the point of frenzy, delirium or madness.
By midnight the crowd at the fair was ree, shouting and shoving toward the stage.
Don't mind him; he gets a bit ree whenever his team loses.
Similarwild, frenzied, crazed, frantic
Oppositecalm
Note
Old English hrēoh covered anything rough, fierce or stormy, in weather or in temper, and the adjective has kept that wild edge while retreating into regional speech. Mrs Calderwood's Journey (1756) calls a man a ree-brained divell, hot-headed past reason. It compares as reer and reest, or with more and most; in general English, wild or frenzied is the safe word.
- 2A condition of intense excitement or frenzy.
The announcement threw the fans into a ree that lasted all night.
Grandad worked himself into a ree over the price of diesel.
Note
Context is the only guide here, because dialect speakers use the same noun for a drunken muddle. News, a goal or a grievance throws people into this ree; drink throws them into the other. Either way it is a state: people are thrown into it, or work themselves into it.
- 3To become wildly excited, or to fly into a rage.
My father would ree at the slightest delay on the roads.
The whole crowd reed as the winning goal went in.
Note
The endings are regular, rees, reeing and reed, and that last form collides with the plant: when a crowd reed, it is a verb, not a stand of rushes. Without an object the verb means getting worked up oneself; driving someone else to it belongs to the causing verb.
- 4To drive someone into a state of excitement, or to fill them with enthusiasm.
Talk of the new mill was enough to ree the whole town.
The fiddlers reed the dancers until the barn floor shook.
Similarexcite, rouse, stir, electrify
Oppositecalm
Note
Here the excitement is caused: music, news or a speech rees a crowd, where with the intransitive verb the crowd rees on its own. What it stirs leans toward enthusiasm rather than rage, fiddlers firing up dancers rather than enraging them.
- 5Muddled by alcohol; half-drunk or tipsy.
By the end of the wedding toasts, half the guests were pleasantly ree.
The skipper was too ree to steer, so his mate took the wheel.
Oppositesober
Note
The tipsiness can be the morning-after kind. In Joseph Robertson's The Book of Bon-Accord (1839), a guide to Aberdeen, a witness recalls a judge on the bench who appeared to be ree, as if he had been drunk the night before. Half-drunk is the core here; the fury of the "frenzied" meaning has softened into fog.
- 6A state of befuddlement, or of drunkenness.
After the harvest supper and too much ale, half the farmhands were in a ree.
He slept off his ree in the hayloft and woke at noon.
Note
Of all the meanings that grew from the Old English root behind the wild adjective, this noun keeps the troubled, disturbed one: a head clouded by ale or by plain confusion. It is a state a person falls into and sleeps off, much like a stupor, and it lives in dialect rather than general English.
- 7A spell of stormy or unsettled weather, especially one that comes around at roughly the same time each year.
The old crofters sowed late, knowing the May ree would flatten anything planted too soon.
That week of gales was the worst ree the island had seen in years.
Similarstorm
Note
Shetland weather lore names its rees by the calendar: James R. Nicolson's Shetland Folklore (1981) lists the Bogel ree in March, the Simmermill ree in April, the Beltane ree about the start of May and the Johnsmas ree. The word comes from Old Norse hríð, a storm, and Norwegian Nynorsk ri still names a spell of harsh weather.
Less common meanings
- 8Alternative form of rei.
Note
The spelling is a stand-in for rei, itself a nonstandard and obsolete English name for the Portuguese real, a unit of money. It shares nothing but its letters with the "wild or frenzied" adjective, a different word that descends from Old English hrēoh.
- 9To pass something through a riddle or sieve, sifting it so that unwanted matter is separated out or thrown off.
Before brewing, they would ree the crushed malt through a fine sieve until it ran clean.
The miller's boy spent the morning reeing oats and throwing the chaff onto a heap.
Note
A farmyard word, now obsolete, from the same world as riddle, a sieve. John Mortimer's The Whole Art of Husbandry (1707) has malt reed over a fine sieve after winnowing and rubbed again until pure, while the rubbings rise to the top. It is a separate word from the dialect "wild" ree, with its own origin.
- 10A stream or small river.
The old mill stood beside the ree, its wheel turned by the slow brown water.
The church of this pariſh, vulgarly called St. Mary Overy, from its dedication to the virgin Mary, and ſituation over the Ree or river, in reſpect of London, is a ſtately Gothic ſtructure, in the form of a cathedral.
1768, Tobias George Smollett, The Present State of all NationsNote
The origin is a puzzle. One guess is that Old English þære ēa, "the river", was heard as the ree, the article's last sound sliding onto the noun; another makes it a variant of rith, as in the place name Rye. Smollett's The Present State of all Nations (1768–9) explains London's St Mary Overy as the church over the Ree. Only Essex dialect kept it.
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Origins
From Middle English rei, reh or reoh, from Old English hrēoh (“rough, fierce, wild, angry, stormy”), from Proto-Germanic *hreuhaz (“bad, wild”), from Proto-Indo-European *krewh₂- (“raw meat, fresh blood”). It is cognate with Scots ree, Old Saxon hrē (“evil, bad, angry”) and Gothic inrauhtjan (“to become angry, rage against”), and related to Old English hrēaw (“raw, uncooked”); compare raw.
Of obscure origin. Perhaps from a rebracketing in which Old English þære ēa came to be heard as “the ree”; alternatively, perhaps a variant of rith, like rye (found in the place name Rye).
From Old Norse hríð (“storm”), which also gave Norwegian Nynorsk ri (“period with harsh weather”).