1400–50; late Middle English crikke, perhaps akin to crick 2
If you have a crick, it means there's a cramp or a painful stiffness in your neck. You might wake with a crick in your neck after sleeping in an uncomfortable position. Staring up at the stars might give you a crick in your neck, and so might traveling a long time on a bus or in a car, or any other activity that limits the movement of your head and neck. You might also end a challenging yoga class with a crick in your neck. Experts aren't sure where crick comes from, though it may be onomatopœic, echoing the sound of a creaking joint.
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“The ideas and insights he outlined still dominate the field,” observes Mr. Cobb, “even though most neuroscientists have no idea that Crick was the first to coherently articulate them.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 4, 2026
Rosalind Franklin had been making X-ray images of DNA in a London laboratory, one of which was passed on by a colleague to Crick and Watson and provided a crucial clue.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 4, 2026
Demonstrating that DNA has a three-dimensional, double-helix shape allowed Watson and Crick to unlock the secrets of how cells worked, and how characteristics were passed down through generations.
From BBC • Dec. 31, 2025
The research was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and led by scientists from the Francis Crick Institute, Stockholm University, the University of Aberdeen, and the University of East Anglia.
From Science Daily • Dec. 29, 2025
Along with the man, the main room is filling with others who look just like Chancellor Nyla, Crick, and Voxy—blonde braids twirling across their scalps.
From "The Last Cuentista" by Donna Barba Higuera
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
