What is "creek"

Creek \Creek\ (kr[=e]k), n. [AS. crecca; akin to D. kreek, Icel. kriki crack, nook; cf. W. crig crack, crigyll ravine, creek. Cf. Crick, Crook.]

1. A small inlet or bay, narrower and extending further into the land than a cove; a recess in the shore of the sea, or of a river.

   Each creek and cavern of the dangerous shore.
   --Cowper.

   They discovered a certain creek, with a shore.
   --Acts xxvii. 39.

2. A stream of water smaller than a river and larger than a brook.

   Lesser streams and rivulets are denominated creeks.
   --Goldsmith.

3. Any turn or winding.

   The passages of alleys, creeks, and narrow lands.
   --Shak.

Creeks \Creeks\ (kr[=e]ks), n. pl.; sing. Creek. (Ethnol.) A tribe or confederacy of North American Indians, including the Muskogees, Seminoles, Uchees, and other subordinate tribes. They formerly inhabited Georgia, Florida, and Alabama.

Indian tribe or confederation, 1725, named for creek, the geographical feature, and abbreviated from Ochese Creek Indians, from the place in Georgia where English first encountered them. Native name is Muskogee, a word of uncertain origin.

mid-15c., creke "narrow inlet in a coastline," altered from kryk (early 13c.; in place names from 12c.), probably from Old Norse kriki "corner, nook," perhaps influenced by Anglo-French crique, itself from a Scandinavian source via Norman. Perhaps ultimately related to crook and with an original notion of "full of bends and turns" (compare dialectal Swedish krik "corner, bend; creek, cove").\n

\nExtended to "inlet or short arm of a river" by 1570s, which probably led to use for "small stream, brook" in American English (1620s). Also used there and in Canada, Australia, New Zealand for "branch of a main river," possibly from explorers moving up main rivers and seeing and noting mouths of tributaries without knowing they often were extensive rivers of their own. Slang phrase up the creek "in trouble," often especially "pregnant," first recorded 1941, perhaps originally armed forces slang for "lost while on patrol."

a. of or pertaining to the Creek tribe n. one of a Native American tribe from the Southeastern United States n. the Muskogean language of the Creek tribe

1. n. a natural stream of water smaller than a river (and often a tributary of a river); "the creek dried up every summer" [syn: brook]

2. any member of the Creek Confederacy (especially the Muskogee) formerly living in Georgia and Alabama but now chiefly in Oklahoma

Creek may refer to:

• Creek (stream), a type of stream
• Creek (tidal), an inlet of the sea, narrower than a cove
• Creek, a narrow channel/small stream between islands in the Florida Keys
• Creek people or Muscogee, a Native American people
  • Creek language, the language of that tribe
  • Creek mythology, the mythology of that tribe
  • Muscogee (Creek) Nation, federally recognized Creek tribe in Oklahoma
  • Poarch Band of Creek Indians, federally recognized Creek tribe in Alabama
• TH-67 Creek, a U.S. Army variant of the Bell 206 helicopter
• Creek County, Oklahoma
• Creek Audio, a British hi-fi company
• Jonathan Creek, BBC TV mystery series

A tidal creek, tidal channel, or estuary is the portion of a stream that is affected by ebb and flow of ocean tides, in the case that the subject stream discharges to an ocean, sea or strait. Thus this portion of the stream has variable salinity and electrical conductivity over the tidal cycle. Due to the temporal variability of water quality parameters within the tidally influenced zone, there are unique biota associated with tidal creeks, which biota are often specialised to such zones.

Creeks may often dry to a muddy channel with little or no flow at low tide, but often with significant depth of water at high tide.