From Middle English bek, bekk, becc, from Old English bæc, bec, bæċe, beċe (“beck, brook”), from Proto-Germanic *bakiz (“stream”).
Cognate with Old Norse bekkr (“a stream or brook”), Low German bek, beck, German Bach, Dutch beek, Swedish bäck, Doublet of batch. More at beach.
Meanings
(Norfolk, Northern-England) A stream or small river.
The beck is crossed by a pretty ford and a number of bridges, and in spring the cottages look out over a dancing sea of daffodils. 1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 102:
This is the boundary at Earnleie: First from Earesbrook and [qu. to] the short thorns, […] and from the tree to Tudelesbeck, along the beck to the Severn, up along the Severn to Leofric's boundary, […] 1908, Collections for a History of Staffordshire, page 107:
[…] the sky is blue, and the larks are singing, and the becks and brooks are all brim full. 1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter XIII, in Wuthering Heights: […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC:
[…]Whence, climing to the Cleeves, her selfe she firmlie sets / The Bourns, the Brooks, the Becks, the Rills, the Rivilets[…] 1612, Michael Drayton, chapter 1, in [John Selden], editor, Poly-Olbion. Or A Chorographicall Description of Tracts, Riuers, Mountaines, Forests, and Other Parts of this Renowned Isle of Great Britaine, […], London: […] [Humphrey Lownes] for M[athew] Lownes; I[ohn] Browne; I[ohn] Helme; I[ohn] Busbie, →OCLC, page 3:
Beck water cold and clear, will never clean your wound 1976, Archie Fisher, “The Witch Of The West-Mer-Lands”, in The Man With A Rhyme, Sharon, CT: Folk Legacy Records:
From Middle English bekken, a shortened form of Middle English bekenen, from Old English bēcnan, bēacnian (“to signify; beckon”), from Proto-West Germanic *baukn, from Proto-Germanic *baukną (“beacon”). More at beacon.
Meanings
A significant nod, or motion of the head or hand, especially as a call or command.
Then forthwith to him takes a choſen band
Of Spirits likeſt to himſelf in guile
To be at hand, and at his beck appear, 1671, John Milton, “The First Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 2:
Ah, knovv you not the Citie fauours them,
And they haue troupes of Souldiers at their beck? c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 147, column 2:
The dog obeyed the significant beck of his finger, and they drew off, stealthily, together. 1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], Oliver Twist; […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC:
Haste thee nymph, and bring with thee
Jest and youthful Jollity,
Quips and cranks, and wanton wiles,
Nods, and becks, and wreathed smiles, 1645, John Milton, L'Allegro:
fi vinkki (significant nod, or motion of the head or hand, especially as a call or command) · fi viittaus (significant nod, or motion of the head or hand, especially as a call or command) · cs kývnutí (significant nod, or motion of the head or hand, especially as a call or command) · fi vinkkaus (significant nod, or motion of the head or hand, especially as a call or command) · ru мановение (significant nod, or motion of the head or hand, especially as a call or command) · pl skinienie (significant nod, or motion of the head or hand, especially as a call or command) · de Wink (significant nod, or motion of the head or hand, especially as a call or command) · hu jeladás (significant nod, or motion of the head or hand, especially as a call or command) · hu intés (significant nod, or motion of the head or hand, especially as a call or command) · cs pokynutí (significant nod, or motion of the head or hand, especially as a call or command) · pl zawołanie (significant nod, or motion of the head or hand, especially as a call or command)
From Middle English bekken, a shortened form of Middle English bekenen, from Old English bēcnan, bēacnian (“to signify; beckon”), from Proto-West Germanic *baukn, from Proto-Germanic *baukną (“beacon”). More at beacon.
Meanings
(archaic) To nod or motion with the head.
When gold and silver becks me to come on. c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii]:
The becking waiter, that with wreathed smiles, wont to spread for Samuel and Bozzy their "supper of the gods," has long since pocketed his last sixpence; and vanished, sixpence and all, like a ghost at cock-crowing. 1881, Various, The Best of the World's Classics, Vol. V (of X) - Great Britain and Ireland III:
I'll buy so many acres of old Scotland and call them by the Lockerby's name; and I'll have nobles and great men come bowing and becking to David Lockerby as they do to Alexander Gordon. 1896, Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr, Winter Evening Tales:
Headed like owles, with beckes 4 uncomely bent 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC: