reek

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   A strong unpleasant smell.

2. 2

   Vapour

   Vapour; steam; smoke; fume.

   • Thou mightst as well say, I loue to walke by the Counter-gate, which is as hatefull to me, as the reeke of a Lime-kill.
   • The blue reeks of smoke from the cottages gave the whole widespread landscape an air of settled order and homely comfort.
3. 3

   To have or give off a strong, unpleasant smell.

   • You reek of perfume.
   • Your fridge reeks of egg.
4. ›+ 7 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      To be evidently associated with something unpleasant.

      • The boss appointing his nephew as a director reeks of nepotism.
   2. 5

      To be emitted or exhaled, emanate, as of vapour or perfume.

   3. 6

      To emit smoke or vapour

      To emit smoke or vapour; to steam.

      • […] innumerable Legions of his Angels of Light, the warm gleames of whose presence is able to make the Mountains to reek and smoak, and to awake that fiery principle that lies dormient in the Earth into a devouring flame.
   4. 7

      To cause (something) to smell.

      • The slaughter of lambs in offering reeked the fore-courts of the Temple.
      • [I]f we get caught we're for the gibbet and the chains. Our flesh will reek the wind.
   5. 8

      To fall in such a way (e.g. particularly finely or heavily) as to resemble smoke.

      • ... the snow still darkens the air, and reeks along the curling wreaths, as if each were a furnace.
      • the sun, which had been occasionally peeping from amidst the windy, rain-reeking clouds, was getting ominously low. One part, however, of the man's prophecy was not borne out - the weather steadily improved and the wind dropped.
      • Great Serpents, like undulating clouds, / Crested, rain-reeking. Their bellies blacken the sky; / Their fierce rains flood earth's hill-rimmed vale; / Their drumming is from mountain to mountain; / From horizon to horizon is their thunder.
   6. 9

      A pile, a heap (as of snow, hay, etc).

      • The fen "dikes" have been filled-in in some districts; and the black reeks remind one of snow-reeks, except for their blackness.
      • "There'll be snow-reeks as high as houses if I wait half-an-hour longer." "There'll be no occasion for ye to wade thruff snaw-reeks at all, if ye'll go wi' me. I'll tak ye across th' warpin' till ye get to the sand-lane end, […]
      • Here a reek of straw was made, and as the reek of corn reduced in size this rose higher; there was skill in making a well balanced reek. The story of the harvest was told at the front of the thresher.
   7. 10

      A hill

      A hill; a mountain.

The neighborhood

• synonymfunk
• synonymhonk
• synonymhum
• synonymniff
• synonympong
• synonymreek
• synonymsmell
• synonymstink
• synonymstink to high heaven
• synonymwhiff
• antonymdefunkify
• antonymdeodorize
• antonymdestinkify
• neighbormalodorous
• neighborstench
• neighborhave a smell
• neighborforesmell
• neighborknock a buzzard off a shit wagon
• neighboroutstink