drake¹

[dreyk] /dreɪk/

noun

a male duck.

Compare duck¹ (def 2).

Origin

1250-1300; Middle English; cognate with Low German drake, dialectal German drache; compare Old High German antrahho, anutrehho male duck

drake²

[dreyk] /dreɪk/

noun

a small cannon, used especially in the 17th and 18th centuries.

drake fly.

Archaic. a dragon.

Origin

before 900; Middle English; Old English draca < Latin dracō dragon

Drake

[dreyk] /dreɪk/

noun

Sir Francis, c1540–96, English admiral and buccaneer: sailed around the world 1577–80.

Joseph Rodman

[rod-muh n] /ˈrɒd mən/ (Show IPA), 1795–1820, U.S. poet.

Examples from the web for drake

drake had broken into their house and was waiting for them to return.
drake did not see oncoming traffic in the northbound lane when he started his left turn.
It shows a hen and a drake on a hillside with an ocean view.
The drake equation does not have enough variables and needs extra inputs.

British Dictionary definitions for drake

drake¹

/dreɪk/

noun

the male of any duck

Word Origin

C13: perhaps from Low German; compare Middle Dutch andrake, Old High German antrahho

drake²

/dreɪk/

noun

(angling) an artificial fly resembling a mayfly

(history) a small cannon

an obsolete word for dragon

Word Origin

Old English draca, ultimately from Latin dracōdragon

Drake

/dreɪk/

noun

Sir Francis. ?1540–96, English navigator and buccaneer, the first Englishman to sail around the world (1577–80). He commanded a fleet against the Spanish Armada (1588) and contributed greatly to its defeat

Word Origin and History for drake

"male duck," c.1300, unrecorded in Old English but may have existed then, from West Germanic *drako (cf. Low German drake, second element of Old High German anutrehho, dialectal German Drache).

archaic for "dragon," from Old English draca "dragon, sea monster, huge serpent," from Proto-Germanic *drako (cf. Middle Dutch and Old Frisian drake, Dutch draak, Old High German trahho, German drache), an early borrowing from Latin draco (see dragon).