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  • rick
    rick
    noun
    Also a large, usually rectangular stack or pile of hay, straw, corn, or the like, in a field, especially when thatched or covered by a tarpaulin; an outdoor or makeshift mow.
  • Rick
    Rick
    noun
    a male given name, form of Eric or Richard.
Synonyms

rick

1 American  
[rik] / rɪk /

noun

  • ricks
    plural
  1. Chiefly Midland U.S. Also a large, usually rectangular stack or pile of hay, straw, corn, or the like, in a field, especially when thatched or covered by a tarpaulin; an outdoor or makeshift mow.

  2. a stack of cordwood or logs cut to even lengths.

  3. a frame of horizontal bars and vertical supports, as used to hold barrels in a distillery, boxes in a warehouse, etc.


verb (used with object)

  1. to form grain into a stack or pile.

  2. to stack (cordwood) in ricks.

rick 2 American  
[rik] / rɪk /

verb (used with or without object)

  1. wrick.


Rick 3 American  
[rik] / rɪk /

noun

  1. a male given name, form of Eric or Richard.


rick 1 British  
/ rɪk /

noun

  1. a large stack of hay, corn, peas, etc, built in the open in a regular-shaped pile, esp one with a thatched top

"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

verb

  1. (tr) to stack or pile into ricks

"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
rick 2 British  
/ rɪk /

noun

  1. a wrench or sprain, as of the back

"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

verb

  1. (tr) to wrench or sprain (a joint, a limb, the back, etc)

"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

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Inflected Forms

Nouns

Etymology

Origin of rick

before 900; Middle English rek ( e ), reek, Old English hrēac; akin to Old Norse hraukr, Old Frisian reak, Middle Dutch rooc, roke

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

Or there are the more hyperspecific suggestions, like this one from a Neptunes knockoff: “a sample of rick james saying ‘shake ya tailfeatha’ would fit on this.”

From Slate Jun. 21, 2018

Kahn conceded just three goals, keeping five clean sheets and becoming the only goalkeeper to be named the tournament’s best player, although a rare rick in the final gifted a goal to winners Brazil.

From The Guardian May 28, 2014

There’s rick material to be mined in comedy when cultures, on the surface, do not mix. 

From Forbes Sep. 16, 2013

The best and worst apologies of the week Topics: Trayvon Martin, rick ross, Matt Lauer, David Patraeus, Piers Morgan, George Zimmerman, Doug Gottlieb, Don Young, It has been one sorry excuse for a week.

From Salon Mar. 29, 2013

Sir Ector stood on the top of a rick, whence he could see what everybody was doing, and shouted commands all over the two-hundred-acre field, and grew purple in the face.

From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White

“There’s just weird stuff sticking out,” said bodysurfer Rick Piani, 58.

From The Wall Street Journal Sep. 22, 2026

Unite national officer Rick Coyle said thousands of employees have signed an open letter calling for Barclays to reverse the decision, and the number of signatories "continues to rise".

From BBC Sep. 17, 2026

Making a “debt inventory” is an especially good move now, said Rick Kahler, founder of Advance Wellbeing Financial Therapy.

From MarketWatch Sep. 16, 2026

“It would be devastating,” Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur, who represents a district that includes the Melrose Avenue movie lot and neighborhoods near Warner Bros. in Burbank, said of a Paramount move.

From Los Angeles Times Sep. 14, 2026

It is about a man called Rick Swope.

From "My Life with the Chimpanzees" by Jane Goodall

Down in the tunnels, workers sorted the remains of the dead, filing them by bones into space-efficient ricks and stacks.

From The New Yorker May 23, 2019

Burnley’s welcome back to the Premier League ends in encouraging defeat, while Monday Night Football ends an hour later with no obvious ricks or gaffes.

From The Guardian Aug. 23, 2014

In Martinsburg, W. Va., a heifer dropped down between two ricks of straw and subsisted seven weeks without water.

From Time Magazine Archive

The tempo is high, the ricks are ticking and the song is a shaggy Pekinese.

From Time Magazine Archive

But I’ll leave you now—it’s gone six, And the smoke is curling over the ricks.

From The Mountainy Singer by Seosamh MacCathmhaoil

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