dreck

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See also: Dreck and dréck

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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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

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Noun

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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[1]:
      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

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