beak

CEFRB2

/biːk/

verb · noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    verb

    hit lightly with a picking motion.

  2. 02

    verb

    Extra detail

    A similar pointed structure forming the nose and mouth of various animals, such as turtles, platypuses, whales, etc.

Examples

  • A pelican can fit a lot of fish in its beak.

  • The bird picked up the twig with its beak and flew to its nest.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Deep Dive

verb

Extra meaning

  1. The long projecting sucking mouth of some insects and other invertebrates, as in the Hemiptera.

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A rigid structure projecting from the front of a bird's face, used for pecking, grooming, foraging, carrying items, eating food, etc.

  2. The upper or projecting part of the shell, near the hinge of a bivalve.

More examples

In context

  • Holonyms: bow, stem, forestem, prow, prore < ship < vessel

  • It’s easy enough to be a beak when you’re young and athletic, and can offer the latest University smattering. The difficulty is to keep your place when you get old and stiff, and younger smatterers are pushing up behind you. Crawl into a boarding-house and yo...

  • Shut your beak!

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The eagle used its sharp curved blank to tear apart the fish it had just caught from the river.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

verb

From Middle English bec, borrowed from Anglo-Norman bec, Old French bec, from Latin beccus, from Gaulish *bekkos, from Proto-Celtic *bekkos (“beak, snout”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bak-, *baḱ- (“pointed stick, peg”). Cognate with Breton beg (“beak”). Compare Saterland Frisian Bäk (“mouth; muzzle; beak”); Dutch bek (“beak; bill; neb”).