DERRICK • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Derrick

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/dˈɛrɪk/ Listen

noun

Derrick n.

A mast, spar, or tall frame, supported at the top by stays or guys, and usually pivoted at the base, with suitable tackle for hoisting heavy weights, such as stones in building.

(Mining) The pyramidal structure or tower over a deep drill hole, such as that of an oil well (also called an oil derrick.

Derrick crane, a combination of the derrick and the crane, having facility for hoisting and also for swinging the load horizontally.

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Etymology of 'Derrick'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Derrick" Quotes from Famous Books

... loads of distracting rubbish; here stood the half-demolished walls of a house, with a sad variety of wall- paper showing in the different rooms; there clinked the trowel upon the brick, yonder the hammer on the stone; overhead swung and threatened the marble block that the derrick was lifting to its place. As yet these forces of demolition and construction had the business of the ...

— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells

... the opening. A few years ago (1866) the property changed hands, and the new owners, convinced that by stopping the lateral outlet they could cause the water to issue again from the mouth of the rock, employed a number of men to undermine the mound, and with a powerful hoisting derrick to lift it off and set it one side, that the spring might ...

— Saratoga and How to See It • R. F. Dearborn

... a tower to shiver the sky and wrench the stars apart, Till the Devil grunted behind the bricks: "It's striking, but is it Art?" The stone was dropped by the quarry-side, and the idle derrick swung, While each man talked of the aims of art, and ...

— Modern British Poetry • Various

... believe that the word was not known before the sixteenth century. In the records of Guildford we find that a dispute arose about the enclosure of a piece of land in the time of Elizabeth; and in the suit that arose one John Derrick stated in his evidence that he knew the place well "for fifty years or more, and that when he was a scholar in the free school at Guildford he and several of his companions did run and play there at cricket and ...

— Old English Sports • Peter Hampson Ditchfield

... way long, Panchita," he said. "You'll be on the job soon now. And what I've come to tell you will help on the good work. I've got a story for you that'll straighten out all the creases and bring you up on your feet better than a steam derrick would." ...

— Treasure and Trouble Therewith - A Tale of California • Geraldine Bonner

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