derrick

plural derricks

1. A device that is used for lifting and moving large objects.

   They count their ships full tale— / Their corn and oil and wine, / Derrick and loom and bale, / And rampart’s gun-flecked line; / City by City they hail: / “Hast aught to match with mine?”

   1894, Rudyard Kipling, To the City of Bombay

   1 more example

   At some places it is possible to load or discharge a vessel without any expenditure on docks or wharves, by dealing with the cargo by hand, or by the ships derricks, or by means of floating discharging appliances while the vessel it moored to buoys in a tideway. […] At low tide it may be impracticable to use a ship's derricks [at a berth].

   1945 January and February, T. F. Cameron, “Dock Working”, in Railway Magazine, pages 9, 10

2. A framework that is constructed over a mine or oil well for the purpose of boring or lowering pipes.

   Synonyms: oil derrick

3. obsoleteAn executioner responsible for hanging convicts; a hangman.

present singular third person derricks · participle present derricking · participle past derricked · past derricked

1. transitiveTo hoist with, or as if with, a derrick.
2. informaltransitiveball gamesTo remove (a pitcher).

   Stinky, who had batted a bit over .200 with scant power (two home runs in 66 games in 1933), was being derricked by Navin.

   2012, Ray Robinson, High and Tight

   1 more example

   As a rule, when the twirler is derricked, it is because the members of the opposition are beginning to take undue familiarity with his offerings. But this is not always the reason.

   2014, Addie Joss, Gary Mitchem, Addie Joss on Baseball, page 96

plural Derricks

1. A male given name from the Germanic languages, variant of Derek.
2. A surname.