creek

/krik/

/krik/

Other forms: creeks

A creek is a stream — like a river, but smaller — and if you grew up in the TV version of rural America, you probably had a creek babbling through your backyard and a dog that looked like Lassie.

If you're "up a creek," or "up a creek without a paddle," you've got a problem with no solution in sight. Say you're out in the middle of nowhere, your cell phone battery has just died, and your car won't start. Unless you've got a solar charger or a tow truck comes along, you're definitely up a creek.

Definitions of creek

1. noun

   a natural stream of water smaller than a river (and often a tributary of a river)
   “the creek dried up every summer”

   synonyms: brook

   examples:

   Bull Run

   a creek in northeastern Virginia where two battles were fought in the American Civil War

   Aegospotamos

   a creek emptying into the Hellespont in present-day Turkey; at its mouth in 405 BC the Spartan fleet under Lysander defeated the Athenians and ended the Peloponnesian War

   types:

   brooklet

   a small brook

   type of:

   stream, watercourse

   a natural body of running water flowing on or under the earth