Steek

//stiːk// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A stitch. Scotland

    "Ake Ogilvie told the tale the next day to Ma Cleghorn, Ma lying at rest in her bed, she'd gone to bed with a steek in her side and as lying fair wearied till Ake looked in."

  2. 2
    The bridge of extra stitches used in the steeking technique.
Verb
  1. 1
    To stitch (sew with a needle).
  2. 2
    To shut or close.
  3. 3
    To use a technique for knitting garments such as sweaters in the round without interruption for openings or sleeves until the end.

Synonyms

All synonyms
boganchavknackerredneck

Example

More examples

"Ake Ogilvie told the tale the next day to Ma Cleghorn, Ma lying at rest in her bed, she'd gone to bed with a steek in her side and as lying fair wearied till Ake looked in."

Etymology

From Scots steek, from Middle English steke (“to enclose”) and Middle Dutch steken (“to stitch”). Noun from Scots steek (“stitch”), from Middle Dutch steek (“stitch”). More at stick, stitch.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.