From Middle English crak, crake, from Old Norse kráka (“crow”), from Proto-Germanic *krak-, *kra- (“to croak, caw”), from Proto-Indo-European *gerh₂-, itself onomatopoeic.
Meanings
Any of several birds of the family Rallidae that have short bills.
grc κερκάς (any of several birds, of the family Rallidae) · fi räikkä (any of several birds, of the family Rallidae) · ru коросте́ль (any of several birds, of the family Rallidae) · es polluela (any of several birds, of the family Rallidae) · fi rääkkä (any of several birds, of the family Rallidae) · fi suokana (any of several birds, of the family Rallidae) · ru дерга́ч (any of several birds, of the family Rallidae) · cs chřástal (any of several birds, of the family Rallidae) · ro cristei (any of several birds, of the family Rallidae) · cy rhegen (any of several birds, of the family Rallidae) · ro ralid (any of several birds, of the family Rallidae) · bg дърдавец (any of several birds, of the family Rallidae) · fi huitti (any of several birds, of the family Rallidae) · fi rantakana (any of several birds, of the family Rallidae) · izh krääkkä (any of several birds, of the family Rallidae) · mi kotoreke (any of several birds, of the family Rallidae)
From Middle English crak, crake, from Old Norse kráka (“crow”), from Proto-Germanic *krak-, *kra- (“to croak, caw”), from Proto-Indo-European *gerh₂-, itself onomatopoeic.
Meanings
To cry out harshly and loudly, like a crake.
'How very disagreeable!' said Annie; 'perhaps the birds took it in turn to crake.' 1872, Bertha E. Wright, Marvels from nature; or, A second visit to aunt Bessie, page 175:
How still ! how very still it is, So silent it appears, E'en from its intensity, To tingle in mine ears. I hear the sheep-bell far away In the calm breathless night; The corncrake begins to crake . Crake, crake, with all its might. 1854 October, “MIDNIGHT IN JULY”, in The Kerry Magazine: A Monthly Journal of Antiquities, Polite Literature, Poetry, volume 1, number 10, page 159:
Of course, a corncrake, as its name suggests, likes to crake among the corn and hayfields, so that in fact you are unlikely ever to confuse it with the spotted crake, a bird to which dry land is almost anathema. 1951, The Listener - Volume 46, page 90:
From Middle English craken, from Old English cracian, from Proto-West Germanic *krakōn.
Cognate with Saterland Frisian kroakje, West Frisian kreakje, Dutch kraken, Low German kraken, French craquer (< Germanic), German krachen.
From Middle English craken, from Old English cracian, from Proto-West Germanic *krakōn.
Cognate with Saterland Frisian kroakje, West Frisian kreakje, Dutch kraken, Low German kraken, French craquer (< Germanic), German krachen.
Meanings
(obsolete) To boast; to speak loudly and boastfully.
With him I threatned to be quite, and great things did I crake. 1600, Phaer's Virgil:
Each man may crake of that which was his own. 1559, The Mirror for Magistrates:
I hyred the to fyght agaynste Alexander, and not to crake and prate. 1526, The Hundred Merry Tales; Or, Shakespeare's Jest Book:
And he that thus doth shal have smal pleasure in his awn rightwysnes, nor no gret lust to crake of his awn deserts or meryts. 1721, John Strype, Ecclesiastical memorials: