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.
a stack of cordwood or logs cut to even lengths.
a frame of horizontal bars and vertical supports, as used to hold barrels in a distillery, boxes in a warehouse, etc.
to form grain into a stack or pile.
to stack (cordwood) in ricks.
before 900; Middle English rek ( e ), reek, Old English hrēac; akin to Old Norse hraukr, Old Frisian reak, Middle Dutch rooc, roke
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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
Although his restrained fall-winter designs featured darker hues than normal, there were rick pickings for anyone who likes a bright wardrobe.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 19, 2018
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
Then-Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder stood beside him in a sign of that chummy bond.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026
SERVITE: New coach Rick Garretson has a history of building top teams with speed, which Friars have plenty.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 26, 2026
Years ago on “Rick and Morty,” President Andre Curtis fumed that he can’t coexist with Rick Sanchez, a living god who won’t submit to his will.
From Salon ● Jul. 25, 2026
Many credit cards include free zero-deductible collision coverage, similar to CDW, as long as you pay for the rental with your card, according to Rick Steves, an Edmonds, Wash.-based travel expert.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 21, 2026
Garland had told the truth; Rick examined the sheet.
From "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick
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
The tempo is high, the ricks are ticking and the song is a shaggy Pekinese.
From Time Magazine Archive
In Martinsburg, W. Va., a heifer dropped down between two ricks of straw and subsisted seven weeks without water.
From Time Magazine Archive
Then, blocks of ice came down from the mountain streams above, and swept along bridges, and hay ricks, and drift wood with them, just as happened once, you may remember, when Susan was alive.
From Daisy; or, The Fairy Spectacles by Guild, Caroline Snowden
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.
