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View synonyms for beck

beck

1

[ bek ]

noun

  1. a gesture used to signal, summon, or direct someone.
  2. Chiefly Scot. a bow or curtsy of greeting.


verb (used with or without object)

  1. Archaic. beckon.

beck

2

[ bek ]

noun

, North England.
  1. a brook, especially a swiftly running stream with steep banks.

beck

3

[ bek ]

verb (used with object)

, Metalworking.
  1. to form (a billet or the like) into a tire or hoop by rolling or hammering on a mandrel or anvil.

Beck

4

[ bek ]

noun

  1. Dave, 1894–1993, U.S. labor leader: president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters 1952–57.

beck

1

/ bɛk /

noun

  1. (in N England) a stream, esp a swiftly flowing one
“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


beck

2

/ bɛk /

noun

  1. a nod, wave, or other gesture or signal
  2. at someone's beck and call
    ready to obey someone's orders instantly; subject to someone's slightest whim
“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
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Word History and Origins

Origin of beck1

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English verb bekken, bec, variant of beckenen, bek(e)nen beckon; noun derivative of the verb

Origin of beck2

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English bek, bec(k), from Scandinavian; compare Old Norse bekkr; akin to Old English bæc, bec, bece, Dutch beek, German Bach “brook”

Origin of beck3

First recorded in 1830–35 as beck-iron; verb use of the noun beck, shortening of beck-iron, a variant of bick-iron
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Word History and Origins

Origin of beck1

Old English becc , from Old Norse bekkr ; related to Old English bece , Old Saxon beki , Old High German bah brook, Sanskrit bhanga wave

Origin of beck2

C14: short for becnen to beckon
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Idioms and Phrases

Idioms
  1. at someone's beck and call, ready to do someone's bidding; subject to someone's slightest wish:

    He has three servants at his beck and call.

More idioms and phrases containing beck

see at someone's beck and call .
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Example Sentences

Released on March 24, 1971, the conceptual song cycle of a poetic middle-aged lecher crashing his Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost and subsequently romancing the teenage Nelson, profoundly impacted everyone from Beck to Air, Portishead to Pulp.

On the day of the Capitol attack, Beck said, he emailed the younger Liebengood to see how he was doing.

Beck’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic and Esquire, and she has served as executive editor at Vogue and editor-in-chief of Jezebel.

Finally, “it always helps to focus on someone else instead of yourself,” Beck said.

Beck recommended asking yourself what you can do despite the situation, and then creating a plan to put it into action.

By Ana Marie Cox Just in time for Christmas, Glenn Beck goes for hipster-chic as a conservative fashion statement.

Beck is a close student of history and propaganda, and especially the history of propaganda.

Just in time for Christmas, Glenn Beck goes for hipster-chic as a conservative fashion statement.

Beck is in the same position as any post-industrial capitalist entrepreneur.

What often is forgotten—and what Beck could probably stand to remember—is that the massacre was, technically, a firefight.

Even Chet Belding, who was always at her beck and call, was terribly busy these days.

Love has come rushing to the beck of a tip-tilted chin, or the tone of a voice, or the droop of an eyelid.

Which being done I took leave and supped at my father's, where was my cozen Beck come lately out of the country.

Many men were at his beck throughout that winter, and when the spring-tide came called he a muster and gat him many more.

There was a patient, sweet-smiling woman in nurse's costume who came and went to the beck and call of every man of us.

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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.

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