Derrick
name, noun, verb, slang ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A device that is used for lifting and moving large objects.
"They count their ships full tale— / Their corn and oil and wine, / Derrick and loom and bale, / And rampart’s gun-flecked line; / City by City they hail: / “Hast aught to match with mine?”"
- 2 a simple crane having lifting tackle slung from a boom wordnet
- 3 A framework that is constructed over a mine or oil well for the purpose of boring or lowering pipes.
- 4 a framework erected over an oil well to allow drill tubes to be raised and lowered wordnet
- 5 An executioner responsible for hanging convicts; a hangman. obsolete
- 1 To hoist with, or as if with, a derrick. transitive
- 2 To remove (a pitcher). informal, transitive
"Stinky, who had batted a bit over .200 with scant power (two home runs in 66 games in 1933), was being derricked by Navin."
- 1 A male given name from the Germanic languages, variant of Derek.
- 2 A surname.
Example
More examples"Derrick dropped his drawing in the tub and is now trying to salvage it with a hair dryer."
Etymology
Named after British executioner Thomas Derrick, who invented the framework arrangement commonly known by this name to aid in the conduct of executions. First use appears c. 1600 in the publication Ballad Death Earl Essex.
Related phrases
More for "derrick"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.