reek
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
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-.
Cognate with West Frisian reek, riik, Dutch rook (“smoke”), Low German Röök, German Rauch (“smoke”), Danish røg (“smoke”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk røyk (“smoke”), Swedish rök (“smoke”), Faroese roykur (“smoke”), Icelandic reykur (“smoke”); also Lithuanian rū̃kti (“to smoke”), rū̃kas (“smoke, fog”), Albanian regj (“to tan”).
Inflected forms:
form: reeks
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: reeks
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: reeking
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: reeked
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: reeked
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: A strong unpleasant smell.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: Vapour; steam; smoke; fume.
pos: noun
tags: Scotland
countable
uncountable
examples: 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.
1768, Alexander Ross (poet), "Helenore; or, the fortunate Shepherdess": a Poem in the Broad Scoth Dialect
Now, by this time, the sun begins to leam,
And lit the hill-heads with his morning beam;
And birds, and beasts, and folk to be a-steer,
And clouds o’ reek frae lum heads to appear.
The blue reeks of smoke from the cottages gave the whole widespread landscape an air of settled order and homely comfort.
gloss: To have or give off a strong, unpleasant smell.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: You reek of perfume.
Your fridge reeks of egg.
gloss: To be evidently associated with something unpleasant.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
intransitive
examples: The boss appointing his nephew as a director reeks of nepotism.
gloss: To be emitted or exhaled, emanate, as of vapour or perfume.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
intransitive
gloss: To emit smoke or vapour; to steam.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
intransitive
examples: […] 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.
gloss: To cause (something) to smell.
pos: verb
tags: rare
transitive
examples: The slaughter of lambs in offering reeked the fore-courts of the Temple.
[I]f we get caught we're for the gibbet and the chains. Our flesh will reek the wind.
gloss: To fall in such a way (e.g. particularly finely or heavily) as to resemble smoke.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
examples: ... the snow still darkens the air, and reeks along the curling wreaths, as if each were a furnace.
the sun, which had been occasionally peeping from amidst the windy, rain-reeking clouds, was getting ominously low. One part, however, of the man's prophecy was not borne out - the weather steadily improved and the wind dropped.
Great Serpents, like undulating clouds, / Crested, rain-reeking. Their bellies blacken the sky; / Their fierce rains flood earth's hill-rimmed vale; / Their drumming is from mountain to mountain; / From horizon to horizon is their thunder.
Synonyms: funk
honk
hum
niff
pong
reek
smell
stink
stink to high heaven
whiff
Antonyms: defunkify
deodorize
destinkify
Related words: malodorous
stench
Derived words: peat-reek
reek-silver
areek
lang may yer lum reek
reekage
reeker
reeksome
reeky
Translations: