dreck means trash; rubbish; useless or worthless stuff. It carries an Arena rating of 1653, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, dreck ranks #276 of 17,163 for Funniest Words, #1,282 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #2,193 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words, #4,497 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words.
dreck is pronounced /dɹɛk/.
Why “dreck” is a great word
Worthless matter, trash, or something of exceedingly low quality. From Yiddish דרעק (drek, “dirt, crap”), from Middle High German drec, from Old High German *threc, 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”). Attested in English from 1922. Unlike "debris," which neutrally describes scattered remains, or "kitsch," which can be embraced with ironic affection, dreck is inherently and irredeemably contemptible. It is the greasy film on a forgotten discount-store trinket, the clammy feel of a mass-produced polyester doll, and the tinny echo of a script written only to fill airtime—the material proof that not everything rises, for some things are born to the mire.
Etymology
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”).
noun
- Trash; rubbish; useless or worthless stuff.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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