rick

See also: Rick

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɹɪk/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

  Rhymes: -ɪk

Etymology 1

From Middle English *rykke, from Old English hrycce (“rick, heap, pile”), cognate with Scots ruk (“rick”), Norwegian ruka (“rick, haystack”). Related also to Old English hrēac (“rick, stack”), from Proto-Germanic *hraukaz (“heap”). Further relations: Dutch rook, Norwegian rauk, Swedish rök, Icelandic hraukur.

Alternative forms

• ruck

Noun

rick (plural ricks)

1. Straw, hay etc. stored in a stack for winter fodder, commonly protected with thatch.
   • 1859, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter 53, in Adam Bede […], volumes (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC:

     There is a remnant still of last year's golden clusters of beehive ricks, rising at intervals beyond the hedgerows; […].

   • 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC:

     It was not far from the house; but the ground sank into a depression there, and the ridge of it behind shut out everything except just the roof of the tallest hayrick. As one sat on the sward behind the elm, with the back turned on the rick and nothing in front but the tall elms and the oaks in the other hedge, it was quite easy to fancy it the verge of the prairie with the backwoods close by.

2. (US) A stack of wood, especially cut to a regular length; also used as a measure of wood, typically four by eight feet.

Derived terms

• rickburner
• rick cloth

Translations

stack or pile, of straw, hay etc.

• Bashkir: кәбән (kəbən) (large), күбә (kübə) (small)
• Bulgarian: купа (bg) f (kupa)
• Finnish: auma (fi)
• French: meule (fr) f
• Persian: راژ (fa) (râž), راش (fa) (râš), چاچ (fa) (čâč)
• Polish: bróg (pl) m
• Russian: стог (ru) m (stog)
• Swedish: stack (sv) c

Verb

rick (third-person singular simple present ricks, present participle ricking, simple past and past participle ricked)

1. To heap up (hay, etc.) in ricks.

Etymology 2

From earlier wrick, from Middle English wricken, wrikken (“to move back and forth”), probably from Middle Dutch *verwricken or Middle Low German vorwricken. Cognate with West Frisian wrikke, wrikje, Dutch wrikken, Low German wricken, German wricken, Danish vrikke, Swedish vricka.

Verb

rick (third-person singular simple present ricks, present participle ricking, simple past and past participle ricked)

1. To slightly sprain or strain the neck, back, ankle etc; to wrench.
2. (transitive, dialectal) To pierce with a hook by means of a sudden jerk or pull.

Noun

rick (plural ricks)

1. (dialectal) A sharp or sudden move; a jerk or tug.

Etymology 3

From Middle English *rikken (attested only as palatised variant Middle English richen (“to pull, tug; to move, proceed, run; to twist, turn”)), from Old Norse rykkja (“to move, rock, throw”), from Proto-Germanic *rukkijaną (“to rock, move”). Cognate with English rock. Possibly merged with Middle English wrikken (“to move to and fro, move back and forth”), see Etymology 2 above.

Verb

rick (third-person singular simple present ricks, present participle ricking, simple past and past participle ricked)

1. (intransitive, dialectal) To rattle, jingle, make a noise; to chatter.
2. (intransitive, dialectal) To grumble.
3. (transitive, dialectal) To scold.
4. (intransitive, dialectal) To raffle.

Derived terms

• ricket

Related terms

• rickety

Noun

rick (plural ricks)

1. (intransitive, dialectal) A noise, rattling.

Etymology 4

Abbreviated form from recruit.

Noun

rick (plural ricks)

1. (military, derogatory and demeaning) A brand new (naive) boot camp inductee.

   No turning back now rick, you are the property of the US government now.

Anagrams

• crik