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CREEK
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A natural stream of water smaller than a river (and often a tributary of a river)
Example:
the creek dried up every summer
Synonyms:
brook; creek
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)
Hypernyms ("creek" is a kind of...):
stream; watercourse (a natural body of running water flowing on or under the earth)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "creek"):
brooklet (a small brook)
Instance hyponyms:
Bull Run (a creek in northeastern Virginia where two battles were fought in the American Civil War)
Aegospotami; Aegospotamos (a creek emptying into the Hellespont in present-day Turkey; at its mouth in 405 BC the Spartan fleet under Lysander defeated the Athenians and ended the Peloponnesian War)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Any member of the Creek Confederacy (especially the Muskogee) formerly living in Georgia and Alabama but now chiefly in Oklahoma
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("Creek" is a kind of...):
Amerindian; Native American (any member of the peoples living in North or South America before the Europeans arrived)
Context examples:
We cast anchor within a league of this creek, and our captain sent a dozen of his men well armed in the long-boat, with vessels for water, if any could be found.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
The three partners were lining a long and narrow poling-boat down a bad stretch of rapids on the Forty-Mile Creek.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
The ship came within half a league of this creek, and sent her long boat with vessels to take in fresh water (for the place, it seems, was very well known); but I did not observe it, till the boat was almost on shore; and it was too late to seek another hiding-place.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
The rabbit sped down the river, turned off into a small creek, up the frozen bed of which it held steadily.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
I now began to be weary, and seeing nothing to entertain my curiosity, I returned gently down towards the creek; and the sea being full in my view, I saw our men already got into the boat, and rowing for life to the ship.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
He ran him into a blind channel, in the bed of the creek where a timber jam barred the way.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
On the 17th, we came in full view of a great island, or continent (for we knew not whether;) on the south side whereof was a small neck of land jutting out into the sea, and a creek too shallow to hold a ship of above one hundred tons.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Buck had already dragged down a stray part-grown calf; but he wished strongly for larger and more formidable quarry, and he came upon it one day on the divide at the head of the creek.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
As I was looking about for a secure landing-place, I saw a sail to the north-north-east, which appearing every minute more visible, I was in some doubt whether I should wait for them or not; but at last my detestation of the Yahoo race prevailed: and turning my canoe, I sailed and paddled together to the south, and got into the same creek whence I set out in the morning, choosing rather to trust myself among these barbarians, than live with European Yahoos.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
He made it clear to Buck that he was to come, and they ran side by side through the sombre twilight, straight up the creek bed, into the gorge from which it issued, and across the bleak divide where it took its rise.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
