Beck vs Peck - What's the difference?
beck | peck |
(Norfolk, Northern English dialect) A stream or small river.
* Drayton
A significant nod, or motion of the head or hand, especially as a call or command.
(archaic) To nod or motion with the head.
* Shakespeare
*{{quote-book, year=1896, author=Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr, title=Winter Evening Tales, chapter=, edition=
, passage="I'll buy so many acres of old Scotland and call them by the Lockerby's name; and I'll have nobles and great men come bowing and becking to David Lockerby as they do to Alexander Gordon. }}
*{{quote-book, year=1881, author=Various, title=The Best of the World's Classics, Vol. V (of X) - Great Britain and Ireland III, chapter=, edition=
, passage=The becking waiter, that with wreathed smiles, wont to spread for Samuel and Bozzy their "supper of the gods," has long since pocketed his last sixpence; and vanished, sixpence and all, like a ghost at cock-crowing. }}
To strike or pierce with the beak or bill (of a bird) or similar instrument.
* 1922 , (Virginia Woolf), (w, Jacob's Room) , Chapter 2
To form by striking with the beak or a pointed instrument.
To strike, pick, thrust against, or dig into, with a pointed instrument, especially with repeated quick movements.
To seize and pick up with the beak, or as if with the beak; to bite; to eat; often with up .
* Shakespeare
To do something in small, intermittent pieces.
To type by searching for each key individually.
(rare) To type in general.
To kiss briefly.
* 1997 , , (w, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone) , Chapter 1; 1998 ed., Scholastic Press, ISBN 0-590-35340-3, p. 2
One quarter of a bushel; a dry measure of eight quarts.
A great deal; a large or excessive quantity.
* Milton
(regional) To throw.
To lurch forward; especially, of a horse, to stumble after hitting the ground with the toe instead of teh flat of the foot.
* 1928 , (Siegfried Sassoon), Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man , Penguin 2013, p. 97:
Discoloration caused by fungus growth or insects.
As nouns the difference between beck and peck
is that beck is a stream or small river while peck is an act of pecking.As verbs the difference between beck and peck
is that beck is to nod or motion with the head while peck is to strike or pierce with the beak or bill (of a bird) or similar instrument.As a proper noun Peck is
{{surname|lang=en}.beck
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) . Cognate with low German bek or beckNoun
(en noun)- The brooks, the becks , the rills.
Synonyms
* brook * burn * creek * streamEtymology 2
A shortened form of (beckon), from (etyl) .Noun
(en noun)- To be at the beck and call of someone.
Verb
(en verb)- When gold and silver becks me to come on.
citation
citation
Etymology 3
See back.Etymology 4
peck
English
(wikipedia peck)Etymology 1
From (etyl) pecken, pekken, variant of (etyl) picken, . More at pick.Verb
(en verb)- The birds pecked at their food.
- The rooster had been known to fly on her shoulder and peck her neck, so that now she carried a stick or took one of the children with her when she went to feed the fowls.
- to peck a hole in a tree
- (Addison)
- This fellow pecks up wit as pigeons peas.
- He has been pecking away at that project for some time now.
- At half past eight, Mr. Dursley picked up his briefcase, pecked Mrs. Dursley on the cheek, and tried to kiss Dudley good-bye but missed, because Dudley was now having a tantrum and throwing his cereal at the walls.
Derived terms
* pecking order * peckish * woodpeckerEtymology 2
Probably from (etyl) (pek), (pekke), of uncertain origin.Noun
(en noun)- They picked a peck of wheat.
- She figured most children probably ate a peck of dirt before they turned ten.
- a peck of uncertainties and doubts
Etymology 3
Variant of .Verb
(en verb)- Anyhow, one of them fell, another one pecked badly, and Jerry disengaged himself from the group to scuttle up the short strip of meadow to win by a length.
Etymology 4
Noun
(-)- an occurrence of peck in rice