Reek

To have a strong, offensive smell; to stink. The word is chiefly constructed with of or with, as in 'She reeks of perfume'. Known historic usages of this meaning of the word include in Jonathan Swift's The journal to Stella in 1710 ("I was forced to go to a blind chop-house,...and then go reeking from thence to the First Minister of State"), in Samuel Foote's Taste in 1752 ("Two Domitians reaking from the Dunghill"), in William Hurrell Mallock's A romance of the nineteenth century in 1881 ("She literally reeked of garlic"), and in Anna Katherine Green's Behind Closed Doors in 1888 ("I found a broken phial reeking with the smell of bitter almonds").

Reek (r&emac;k), n.

A rick.

B. Jonson.

© Webster 1913.

Reek, n. [AS. rc; akin to OFries. rk, LG. & D. rook, G. rauch, OHG. rouh, Dan. rg, Sw. rk, Icel. reykr, and to AS. recan to reek, smoke, Icel. rjka, G. riechen to smell.]

Vapor; steam; smoke; fume.

As hateful to me as the reek of a limekiln. Shak.

© Webster 1913.

Reek, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Reeked (r?kt); p. pr. & vb. n. Reeking.] [As. rcan. See Reek vapor..]

To emit vapor, usually that which is warm and moist; to be full of fumes; to steam; to smoke; to exhale.

Few chimneys reeking you shall espy. Spenser.

I found me laid In balmy sweat, which with his beams the sun Soon dried, and on the reeking moisture fed. Milton.

The coffee rooms reeked with tobacco. Macualay.

© Webster 1913.