Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A gesture of beckoning or summons.
- idiom. at (someone's) beck and call Ready to comply with any wish or command.
- n. Chiefly British A small brook; a creek.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A brook; a small stream; especially, a brook with a stony bed or rugged course.
- n. The valley of a beck; a field or patch of ground adjacent to a brook. See batch.
- To signal by a nod or other significant gesture; beckon.
- To recognize a person by a slight bow or nod.
- To summon or intimate some command or desire to by a nod or gesture; beckon to.
- To express by a gesture: as, to beck thanks.
- n. A nod of the head or other significant gesture intended to be understood as expressive of a desire, or as a sign of command.
- n. A gesture of salutation or recognition; a bow; a courtesy.
- n. An agricultural implement with two hooks, used in dressing turnips, etc.; a form of mattock.
- n. A beak.
- n. Any pointed or projecting part of the dress, especially of a head-dress, as of the bycocket.
- n. A vat or vessel used in a dye-house; a back.
- n. Same as beck-harman.
Wiktionary
- n. Norfolk, Northern England A stream or small river.
- n. A significant nod, or motion of the head or hand, especially as a call or command.
- v. archaic To nod or motion with the head.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. obsolete See beak.
- n. A small brook.
- n. A vat. See back.
- v. Archaic To nod, or make a sign with the head or hand.
- v. Archaic To notify or call by a nod, or a motion of the head or hand; to intimate a command to.
- n. A significant nod, or motion of the head or hand, esp. as a call or command.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a beckoning gesture
Etymologies
- A shortened form of beckon, from Old English bēcnan, from Proto-Germanic *bauknan (“beacon”). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English bek, from bekken, to beckon, alteration of bekenen; see beckon.Middle English, from Old Norse bekkr; see bhegw- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“It is the _brok lempe_ of old writers, _Veronica beccabunga_, the syllable _bec_ signifying a beck or brook; or perhaps the whole title comes from the Flemish _beck pungen_, mouth-smart, in allusion to the pungent taste of the plant.”
“February 13th, 2009 at 6: 17 pm glenn beck is such a d-bag!! rec Says:”
Matthew Yglesias » RNC Chair Steele Says Republicans Are Untrustworthy
“Personally, I think beck is hurting our country, he also is a racist who incites violence.”
“Fred ♪ ♫ ♪ says: beck is recieving his well deserved karma. down the drain he goes.”
Think Progress » Apple and other advertisers have ‘abandoned’ Fox News because of Glenn Beck.
“We all know that beck is a sick, whatever the fck he is.”
“Xisithrus says: if you guys think that beck is just an opinion based show only = Pezpiz =”
“The words of the ignoramus known as glenn beck have no power here. glenn beck is not right, “technically right” or anywhere near right.”
Think Progress » Beck: ‘African-American is a bogus, PC, made-up term. I mean, that’s not a race.’
“To the rest of the world, beck is a fascist propagandist preaching sedition and hatred.”
“February 18th, 2010 at 7: 58 pm tombaker says: beck is their manson.”
Think Progress » Scott Brown Yawns At Plane Attack On IRS Building: ‘No One Likes Paying Taxes’
“Fred ♪ ♫ ♪ says: beck is saying that he will call people what he wants to call them regardless of what they want to be called.”
Think Progress » Beck: ‘African-American is a bogus, PC, made-up term. I mean, that’s not a race.’
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘beck’.
-
People commonly known by their first ...
rembrandt, galileo, dante, beck, jewel, madonna, cher, saddam, elvis, usain, vangelis, michelangelo and 103 more...
-
Water always flows downhill
The path of least resistance, watercourses, plumbing....
swale, hollow, creek, crick, depression, holler, draw, ditch, corrie, cwm, continental divide, stream and 89 more...
-
Written on Water
An eclectic list of words pertaining to and describing water.
"...I am the faithful husband of the rain,
I love the water of wells and springs
and the taste of roofs in the...water, rain, cistern, thirst, dead-water, eddy-water, surge, flood, ebb, fluid, flow, liquor amnii and 202 more...
-
big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6689 more...
-
Potpourri
eponymous, aa, pulchritude, gizmo, macabre, sui generis, solecism, solipsism, eldritch, samizdat, queue, obsequious and 469 more...
-
.names
remy, rolf, theobald, jerrick, dray, theade, torfin, roderick, eleazer, keller, leif, melrick and 149 more...
-
O! Timballo
for the same
tea-poy, pooking fork, ait, eyot, quodlibet, milk leg, tussie-mussie, calash, gueules, caitiff, bindery, demi-rep and 224 more...
-
Jane Eyre
abigail, sanguine, chancel, bourne, peremptorily, parley, unwonted, fagging, convolvuli, tarry, insuperable, execrations and 190 more...
-
ElRojo
R. Peter Jackson's list
cantillation, jackstaff, pullulate, whoremonger, colloquy, batman, anathema, idiosyncratic, facilitation, sympathy, empathy, satrap and 134 more...
-
amber words
amber words is the term I use for words that are all but fossilized, in the sense that their use is always in the context of a single expression. Examples include caboodle, dudgeon, umbrage
sanctum, akimbo, amok, riddance, druthers, trove, caboodle, immemorial, blithering, dudgeon, swaddling, askance and 110 more...
-
fbharjo's Words
jumelle, kef, kenspeckle, lautitious, essentic, pilpulistic, impavid, cicurant, clou, chrysostomic, miasma, teleology and 1625 more...
-
Next!
salvific, redemptive, salvic, roil, changeling, barrow, burro, sow, swath, haymow, shock, sheaves and 190 more...
-
Words Covered in Faery Dust (B)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
balcony, bailey, baguette, bairn, balalaika, baldric, balefire, baby's breath, ballet, balm of gilead, balsam, baluster and 188 more...
-
Romantic Words
Words that inspire poetic romance and idyllic atmosphere in my mind.
chapel, vale, abbey, beck, willow, lych-gate, churchyard, herb, damask, beryl, foxglove
-
missanja's list
Clothes
baggy jumper, creased jacket, crumpled shirt, faded sweatshirt, fancy dress, fetching dress, flared trousers, flat shoes, garish, grubby, moth-eaten, patched trousers and 6 more...
-
etymological curiosities
Convergences. ('Convergent homonyms' is one candidate for the term; I'm not yet sure whether I like it best, even after a long time collecting.)
None of these are polysemous (identica...brook, mere, rum, juke, drill, duck, tick, hone, low, bat, may, bear and 79 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for beck.

treeseed Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
noun
Etymology: Middle English bek, from Old Norse bekkr; akin to Old English bæc brook, Old High German bah
Date: 14th century
British : creek
"Oh, dear, if I was but a little chap in Vendale again, to see the clear beck, and the apple-orchard, and the yew-hedge, how different I would go on!"
_Water Babies - Charles Kingsley, 1937 Jan 31, 2008
slumry and a gesture used to summon someone Jul 18, 2007
fbharjo beck in the sense of a small, steep brook or stream Jan 15, 2007