crick

plural cricks

1. A painful stiffness in some part of the body, like the neck or back, which makes it difficult to move the affected body part for some time; a cramp.

   I had a crick in my neck for a week after ordering the wrong pillow at the Graylyn Estate […]

   2022, Brenda Prater Sellers, You Slept Where?: Calamities of a Clumsy Businesswoman

2. A small jackscrew.

present singular third person cricks · participle present cricking · participle past cricked · past cricked

1. To develop a crick (cramp, spasm).

   Stomach sleeping never worked for her because her neck cricked and pained in so short a time, that she never got the chance to fall asleep that way although the rest of her body snuggled well into the bed in that position.

   2008, Jacqueline Signori, Ada, →ISBN, page 48

   1 more example

   “He's upstairs.” As soon as she said this, a loud knocking came from the crawl space below. Katrín was so startled that her neck cricked painfully as she looked down. Adrenalin rushed through her veins and the pain in her fingers disappeared.

   2014, Yrsa Sigurdardottir, I Remember You: A Ghost Story, Minotaur Books, →ISBN

2. To cause to develop a crick; to create a crick in.

   He'd fallen asleep after all (and he'd done it in such a way as to crick his neck and his back and put his right arm to sleep; hardly a good start to a busy day) and now daylight was seeping through the bald patches in the thatch, ...

   2013, K. J. Parker, Pattern, Orbit, →ISBN

3. To twist, bend, or contort, especially in a way that produces strain.

   Now she was able to stand on her feet, so long as she kept her neck cricked.

   2018, Tim Major, Machineries of Mercy, ChiZine Publications, →ISBN

   3 more examples

   He stopped a few feet from her, probably because he'd have to crick his neck to glare at her and that would just be embarrassing for him. “Dealing with garbage suits you.”

   2011, Camy Tang, Protection for Hire: A Novel, Zondervan, →ISBN

   The throbbing pain that even now was coursing through his neck and shoulders, making him crick his neck.

   2012, Doug Johnstone, Hit and Run, Faber & Faber, →ISBN

   Addy was tall for a woman, and he liked that because he didn't have to crick his neck ...

   2015, Emma Miller, A Match for Addy, Harlequin, →ISBN, page 121

plural cricks

1. AppalachiaalternativeOttawa ValleyAlternative form of creek.

present singular third person cricks · participle present cricking · participle past cricked · past cricked

1. intransitiveTo make a sharp, penetrating sound; chirp.

plural cricks

1. The creaking of a door, or a noise resembling it.

1. A village and civil parish in West Northamptonshire, Northamptonshire, England, previously in Daventry district (OS grid ref SP5872).
2. A small village in Caerwent community, Monmouthshire, Wales (OS grid ref ST4890).
3. A habitational surname derived from the placename.

   Francis Crick was the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA.

   1 more example

   Farage's biographer, the veteran political journalist Michael Crick, has also noticed a shift.

   2026 September 4, Joe Pike, “Three crucial questions facing Farage at Reform conference”, in BBC News, retrieved 04 Sep 2026