Reek

Pronunciation

• enPR: rÄ“k, IPA: /riːk/
• Rhymes: -iːk
• Homophones: 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 røyk), from Proto-Indo-European *rougi- (compare Lithuanian rū̃kti ‘to smoke’, rū̃kas ‘smoke, fog’, Albanian regj ‘to tan’).

Vladimir Orel, A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, s.vv. “*raukiz”, “*reukanan”(Leiden: Brill, 2003), 299:303.

Full definition of reek

Noun

1. A strong unpleasant smell.
2. Vapor; steam; smoke; fume.
• ShakespeareAs hateful to me as the reek of a limekiln.

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.

Verb

1. (archaic, intransitive) To be emitted or exhaled, emanate, as of vapour or perfume.
2. To have or give off a strong, unpleasant smell.You reek of perfume.Your fridge reeks of egg.
3. (figuratively) To be evidently associated with something unpleasant.The boss appointing his nephew as a director reeks of nepotism.

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

Noun

1. (Ireland) A hill; a mountain.

Anagrams

• kere