Meaning & use
a crick
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountable
A sudden sharp pain and stiffness in the neck or back, often caused by sleeping or sitting badly.
Grammar: Countable: you can have a crick or several cricks, and it is almost always followed by 'in' plus the body part.
Patterns
- a crick in your neck
- a crick in your back
- get a crick in something
I woke up with a crick in my neck and could hardly turn my head.
Sitting at that old desk all day gave me a crick in my back.
She rubbed her neck, trying to ease the crick she had gotten overnight.
Word forms
| plural | cricks |
|---|
Common combinations
- have a crick in your neck
- I have a crick in my neck from sleeping on the sofa.
- get a crick in your back
- You'll get a crick in your back if you lift that way.
- a painful crick
- He came in complaining of a painful crick in his shoulder.
- ease a crick
- A warm shower can help ease a crick in your neck.
Synonyms and how they differ
- stiff neck
- Describes the lasting stiffness itself rather than the sudden sharp pain; a crick is more specific and often brief.
- kink
- Very close in meaning and also used with 'in', as in 'a kink in my neck', but it sounds a little more informal.
- spasm
- A more medical word for a sudden muscle tightening; use it for a stronger, more serious feeling than a crick.
Word family
- crick verb
- To twist your neck or back awkwardly, often causing this pain.
Commonly confused: a crick or creek?
a crick vs creek
A creek is a small stream of water. It sounds the same as crick in many accents, so check the spelling: neck pain is a crick, water is a creek.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'crick' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'A crick in my neck' is the fixed pattern for this pain. 'Of' is the wrong preposition, 'crick' does not mean a stream (that is 'creek'), and 'on the shoulder' does not fit because a crick is inside the neck or back.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “a crick”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.