Definition of "reck"

reck

/ɹɛk/

verb
third-person singular simple present recks, present participle recking, simple past and past participle recked or (obsolete) rought, raught
1. (transitive, intransitive, intransitive, archaic) To take account of (someone or something); to care for; to consider, to heed, to regard.
  Quotations
  Do not, as some ungracious pastors do, / Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven, / Whiles, like a puffed and reckless libertine, / Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads, / And recks not his own rede.
  c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene iii]
  […] with that care lost / went all his fear: of God, or hell, or worse / he recked not […]
  1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, line 50
  Little thou reck'st of this sad store!Would thou might never reck them more!
  1822, John E. Hall, editor, The Port Folio, volume XIV
  She recks not now, as of old, whether her word carries with it the sting or the sweet—it is not now in her thought to ask whether pain or pleasure follows the thoughtless slight or the scornful pleasantry. The victim suffers, but she recks not of his grief.
  1835, William Gilmore Simms, The Partisan, Harper, Chapter XI, page 136
  Little recked the busy multitude in that great smoky town of Blackingham of the solemn glories of the fading woods, with all their mellow brown and crimson foliage; little dreamed they of gorgeous sunsets, purple clouds, roseate mists, and lingering lovely-coloured lights in mountain passes; […]
  1866, Emma Jane Worboise, “Mr. Armstrong’s Will”, in Sir Julian’s Wife, London: Virtue Brothers and Co., […], page 1
  She knows us not, nor recks if she enthrallWith voice and eyes and fashion of her hair […]
  1900, Ernest Dowson, Villanelle of Marguerite's, lines 10–11
  Little recked he perhaps for what she felt, that dull aching void in her heart sometimes, piercing to the core.
  1922 February, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […]
2. (transitive, intransitive, archaic, dialectal) To concern (someone); to be important or earnest.
  Quotations
  What recks it them?
  1637, John Milton, “Lycidas”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646
3. (intransitive, obsolete) To think.
  Quotations
  My master is of churlish disposition, / And little recks to find the way to heaven / By doing deeds of hospitality.
  c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene iv], lines 798-800

Definition of "reck"

reck

verb

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations