reek

• enPR: rēk, IPA^(key): /ɹiːk/
• Rhymes: -iːk
• Homophone: wreak

From Middle English rek, reke (“smoke”), from Old English rēc, rīec, from Proto-Germanic *raukiz (compare West Frisian reek, riik, Dutch rook, Low German Röök, German Rauch, Danish røg, Norwegian Bokmål røyk), from Proto-Indo-European *rowgi- (compare Lithuanian rū̃kti (“to smoke”), rū̃kas (“smoke, fog”), Albanian regj (“to tan”)).[1]

reek (countable and uncountable, plural reeks)

1. A strong unpleasant smell.
2. Vapour; steam; smoke; fume.
   • 1623, William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor

     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.

   • Helenore; or, the fortunate Shepherdess: a Poem in the Broad Scoth Dialect, Alexander Ross (poet), 1768:

     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.

From Middle English reken (“to smoke”), from Old English rēocan, from Proto-Germanic *reukaną (compare Dutch ruiken, Low German rüken, German riechen, Danish ryge, Swedish ryka), from Proto-Indo-European *rougi-. See above.

reek (third-person singular simple present reeks, present participle reeking, simple past and past participle reeked)

1. (intransitive) To have or give off a strong, unpleasant smell.

   You reek of perfume.

   Your fridge reeks of egg.

2. (intransitive, figuratively) To be evidently associated with something unpleasant.

   The boss appointing his nephew as a director reeks of nepotism.

3. (archaic, intransitive) To be emitted or exhaled, emanate, as of vapour or perfume.
4. (archaic, intransitive) To emit smoke or vapour; to steam.

Probably a transferred use (after Irish cruach stack (of corn), pile, mountain, hill) of a variant of rick (with which it is cognate).

reek (plural reeks)

1. (Ireland) A hill; a mountain.

• A Dictionary of North East Dialect, Bill Griffiths, 2005, Northumbria University Press, →ISBN
• Northumberland Words, English Dialect Society, R. Oliver Heslop, 1893–4
• A List of words and phrases in everyday use by the natives of Hetton-le-Hole in the County of Durham, F.M.T.Palgrave, English Dialect Society vol.74, 1896,
• The New Geordie Dictionary, Frank Graham, 1987, →ISBN
• Notes:

• kere

From Middle English rek, reke (“smoke”), from Old English rēc, rīec, from Proto-Germanic *raukiz.

reek (uncountable)

1. reek

reek (third-person singular present reeks, present participle reekin, past reekt, past participle reekt)

1. reek

• riik

From Old Frisian rēk, from Proto-Germanic *raukiz. Compare North Frisian reck, rieck, English reek, Danish rook, Low German Röök, German Rauch, Danish røg.

reek c

1. smoke