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Reek
Definitions
- 1 A strong unpleasant smell. countable, uncountable
- 2 A pile, a heap (as of snow, hay, etc).
"The fen "dikes" have been filled-in in some districts; and the black reeks remind one of snow-reeks, except for their blackness."
- 3 A hill; a mountain. Ireland
- 4 a distinctive odor that is offensively unpleasant wordnet
- 5 Vapour; steam; smoke; fume. Scotland, countable, uncountable
"Thou mightst as well say, I loue to walke by the Counter-gate, which is as hatefull to me, as the reeke of a Lime-kill."
- 1 To have or give off a strong, unpleasant smell. intransitive
"You reek of perfume."
- 2 be wet with sweat or blood, as of one's face wordnet
- 3 To be evidently associated with something unpleasant. figuratively, intransitive
"The boss appointing his nephew as a director reeks of nepotism."
- 4 smell badly and offensively wordnet
- 5 To be emitted or exhaled, emanate, as of vapour or perfume. archaic, intransitive
Show 5 more definitions
- 6 have an element suggestive (of something) wordnet
- 7 To emit smoke or vapour; to steam. archaic, intransitive
"[…] innumerable Legions of his Angels of Light, the warm gleames of whose presence is able to make the Mountains to reek and smoak, and to awake that fiery principle that lies dormient in the Earth into a devouring flame."
- 8 give off smoke, fumes, warm vapour, steam, etc. wordnet
- 9 To cause (something) to smell. rare, transitive
"The slaughter of lambs in offering reeked the fore-courts of the Temple."
- 10 To fall in such a way (e.g. particularly finely or heavily) as to resemble smoke. archaic
"... the snow still darkens the air, and reeks along the curling wreaths, as if each were a furnace."
Etymology
From Middle English rek, reke (“smoke”), from Old English rēc, from Proto-West Germanic *rauki, from Proto-Germanic *raukiz, from Proto-Indo-European *rowgi-. See also West Frisian reek, riik, Dutch rook, Low German Röök, German Rauch, Danish røg, Norwegian Bokmål røyk; also Lithuanian rū̃kti (“to smoke”), rū̃kas (“smoke, fog”), Albanian regj (“to tan”).
From Middle English reken (“to smoke”), from Old English rēocan, from Proto-West Germanic *reukan, from Proto-Germanic *reukaną, from Proto-Indo-European *rougi-. See above. Related to Dutch ruiken, Low German rüken, German riechen, Danish ryge, Swedish ryka.
From Middle English reke (“heap, pile”), from Old English hrēac.
Probably a transferred use (after Irish cruach (“stack (of corn), pile, mountain, hill”)) of a variant of rick, with which it is cognate.
See also for "reek"
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