creel

• IPA^(key): /kɹiːl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːl

Inherited from Northern Middle English crele, possibly from an Old French root *creille, variant of greille (compare French grille), from Latin crāticula.

creel (plural creels)

1. A woven basket, especially a wicker basket.

   Synonym: (probably UK, dialectal) wick

   1. (fishing) An osier basket that anglers use to hold fish.
      • 1895, R. D. Blackmore, Slain By The Doones, Dodd, Mead and Company, page 6:

        Return with a creel of trout for supper.

      • 1897, William Henley, In Fisherrow:

        Her great creel forehead-slung, she wanders nigh,
        Easing the heavy strap with gnarled, brown fingers

   2. (chiefly historical) Such a basket slung as a backpack for cargo, especially in times and places with limited or nonexistent wheeled transport, as for example among peasants in mountainous regions.
      1. (chiefly historical) Such a basket slung on a pack animal; a pannier.
2. (textiles) A bar or set of bars with skewers for holding paying-off bobbins, as in the roving machine, throstle, and mule.

creel (third-person singular simple present creels, present participle creeling, simple past and past participle creeled)

1. (transitive) To place (fish) in a creel.

• skep
• skip

Unclear. The English Dialect Dictionary has cites of a British dialectal verb creel "crouch, bend the body" from 1897.

creel (third-person singular simple present creels, present participle creeling, simple past and past participle creeled)

1. (Appalachia, Southern US) To wrench or sprain.
   • 1916, The South Western Reporter, pages 883-884:

     For aught that appears in the record, plaintiff's fall was due entirely to the fact that his foot "creeled," and no one can say that his injuries were not due to the fall, but to the fact that he rolled down the embankment. […] he stepped around, and in doing so "creeled his foot in some way" and fell down the embankment, […]

   • 1975, Marjorie Chalmers, Better I Stay, page 34:

     […] a "creeled foot " strapped to relieve strained muscles, […]

   • 2014 July 25, Anthony Cavender, Folk Medicine in Southern Appalachia, UNC Press Books, →ISBN, pages 114-115:

     He creeled his ankle when he jumped off the porch. […] Vinegar was a key ingredient in many remedies for a creeled ankle.

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