dreck

See also: Dreck and dréck

English

Alternative forms

• drek

Etymology

From Yiddish דרעק (drek, “dirt, crap”), from Middle High German drek, from Old High German *threc (in mūsthrec), from Proto-West Germanic *þraki, from Proto-Germanic *þrakjaz, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)terǵ-, *(s)terḱ-, *(s)treḱ- (“manure, dung; to sully, soil, decay”). Compare Cimbrian drèkh (“excrement, manure”), Dutch drek (“dung; semi-liquid filth; mud”), German Dreck (“dirt; filth”), Latin stercus (“dung, manure”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɹɛk/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛk

Noun

dreck (uncountable)

1. (informal) trash; worthless merchandise.

   Synonyms: crap, junk, trash; see also Thesaurus:trash

   • 2018 August 2, Kara Swisher, “The Expensive Education of Mark Zuckerberg and Silicon Valley”, in New York Times‎:

     Unfortunately, the conversation soon turned into a late-night freshman-year dorm-room debate, as he stumbled into a controversy of his own making by using Holocaust deniers and their appalling falsehoods as an example of how much dreck should be allowed on the platform.

Derived terms

• dreckish
• dreckitude
• dreckness
• drecky