crake

[ kreyk ]

noun
  1. any of several short-billed rails, especially the corn crake.

Origin of crake

1
1275–1325; Middle English <Old Norse krākr, krākicrow1

Words Nearby crake

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use crake in a sentence

  • If it is a young man, they should start with Oryx and crake.

    How I Write: Margaret Atwood | Noah Charney | October 10, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST
  • Accepting the proffered service, the body was put on the mysterious animal's back, which carried it to crake Minster.

  • Then a nightingale began to give forth its long liquid gurgling; and a corn-crake churred in the young wheat.

    The Dark Flower | John Galsworthy
  • Two sounds are and have been heard all night—the ceaseless call of the crake and the not less ceaseless song of the sedge-bird.

    Poachers and Poaching | John Watson
  • In the level meadow from among the tall grasses and white-flowering wild parsley a landrail called 'crake, crake,' ceaselessly.

    Field and Hedgerow | Richard Jefferies
  • “Creek—creek,” sang the landrail or meadow-crake, apparently a quarter of a mile off.

    Hollowdell Grange | George Manville Fenn

British Dictionary definitions for crake

crake

/ (kreɪk) /


noun
  1. zoology any of several rails that occur in the Old World, such as the corncrake and the spotted crake

Origin of crake

1
C14: from Old Norse krāka crow or krākr raven, of imitative origin

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012