Etymology From Middle English crak, crake, from Old Norse kráka (“crow”), from Proto-Germanic *krak-, *kra- (“to croak, caw”), from Proto-Indo-European *gerh₂-, itself onomatopoeic.
1
Any of several birds of the family Rallidae that have short bills.
Etymology From Middle English crak, crake, from Old Norse kráka (“crow”), from Proto-Germanic *krak-, *kra- (“to croak, caw”), from Proto-Indo-European *gerh₂-, itself onomatopoeic.
1
To cry out harshly and loudly, like a crake.
How still ! how very still it is, So silent it appears, E'en from its intensity, To tingle in mine ears. I hear the sheep-bell far away In the calm breathless night; The corncrake begins to crake . Crake, crake, with all its might.1854 October, “MIDNIGHT IN JULY”, in The Kerry Magazine: A Monthly Journal of Antiquities, Polite Literature, Poetry, volume 1, number 10, page 159:
'How very disagreeable!' said Annie; 'perhaps the birds took it in turn to crake.'1872, Bertha E. Wright, Marvels from nature; or, A second visit to aunt Bessie, page 175:
1 more example
Of course, a corncrake, as its name suggests, likes to crake among the corn and hayfields, so that in fact you are unlikely ever to confuse it with the spotted crake, a bird to which dry land is almost anathema.1951, The Listener - Volume 46, page 90:
crake
verb
Etymology From Middle English craken, from Old English cracian, from Proto-West Germanic *krakōn. Cognate with Saterland Frisian kroakje, West Frisian kreakje, Dutch kraken, Low German kraken, French craquer (< Germanic), German krachen.
1
Obsolete To boast; to speak loudly and boastfully.
I hyred the to fyght agaynste Alexander, and not to crake and prate.1526, The Hundred Merry Tales; Or, Shakespeare's Jest Book:
Each man may crake of that which was his own.1559, The Mirror for Magistrates:
2 more examples
With him I threatned to be quite, and great things did I crake.1600, Phaer's Virgil:
And he that thus doth shal have smal pleasure in his awn rightwysnes, nor no gret lust to crake of his awn deserts or meryts.1721, John Strype, Ecclesiastical memorials:
Etymology From Middle English craken, from Old English cracian, from Proto-West Germanic *krakōn. Cognate with Saterland Frisian kroakje, West Frisian kreakje, Dutch kraken, Low German kraken, French craquer (< Germanic), German krachen.