n. See Beak. [ Obs. ] Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]
n. [ OE. bek, AS. becc; akin to Icel. bekkr brook, OHG. pah, G. bach. ] A small brook. [ 1913 Webster ]
The brooks, the becks, the rills. Drayton. [ 1913 Webster ]
n. A vat. See Back. [ 1913 Webster ]
v. i.
v. t. To notify or call by a nod, or a motion of the head or hand; to intimate a command to. [ Archaic ] [ 1913 Webster ]
When gold and silver becks me to come on. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]
n. A significant nod, or motion of the head or hand, esp. as a call or command. [ 1913 Webster ]
They have troops of soldiers at their beck. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]
n. (Zool.) A European fish (Pagellus centrodontus); the sea bream or braise. [ 1913 Webster ]
n. [ Cf. D. bek beak, and E. beak. ] [ 1913 Webster ]
v. t.
His distant friends, he beckons near. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]
It beckons you to go away with it. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]
n. A sign made without words; a beck. “At the first beckon.” Bolingbroke. [ 1913 Webster ]
A hydrometer scale on which the zero point corresponds to sp. gr. 1.00, and the 30°-point to sp. gr. 0.85. From these points the scale is extended both ways, all the degrees being of equal length. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]
n. [ Said to be from the name of the inventor; cf. It. prencisbecco. ] An alloy of copper and zinc, resembling gold; a yellow metal, composed of about three ounces of zinc to a pound of copper. It is much used as an imitation of gold in the manufacture of cheap jewelry. [ 1913 Webster ]
a. Made of pinchbeck; sham; cheap; spurious; unreal. “A pinchbeck throne.” J. A. Symonds. [ 1913 Webster ]
[ So called from the Isle of Purbeck in England. ] (Geol.) The strata of the Purbeck stone, or Purbeck limestone, belonging to the Oolitic group. See the Chart of Geology. [ 1913 Webster ]
(Geol.) A limestone from the Isle of Purbeck in England. [ 1913 Webster ]
‖n. [ NL. So named after Olaf