creak
/kɹiːk/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.52 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To make a prolonged sharp grating or squeaking sound, as by the friction of hard substances.
Intransitive verb
name
A surname.
Example Sentences
- "I won't say that I didn't close my eyes for a minute through the whole night, but if I did sleep it was only as a watchdog sleeps. A whisper or a creak of a board would have found me alert."
- "Then when the four ropes were arranged the coffin was placed upon them. He watched it descend; it seemed descending for ever. At last a thud was heard; the ropes creaked as they were drawn up."
- "He heard the creaking of the bolt as it came slowly back, and at the same moment he found the monkey's paw, and frantically breathed his third and last wish."
- "Creaking my shoes on the plain masonry."
- "I miss the polished brass, the powerful black horses, The drivers creaking the seats of the baroque hearses, […]"
- "Fascinating though this high-minded re-reading was, certain crucial joints of the play creaked a good deal under the strain."
Etymology
From Middle English creken, criken, metathesis of Old English cearcian (“to chatter, creak, crash, gnash”), from Proto-West Germanic *krakōn (“to crash, crack, creak”), from Proto-Indo-European *gerh₂- (“to make a sound, cry hoarsely”), ultimately of imitative origin. Compare also Old English crǣccettan, crācettan (“to croak”), Albanian grykë (“throat”). More at crack.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: creken, cearcian, *krakōn, *gerh₂-