creel

/kɹiːl/

creel noun: a woven basket, especially a wicker basket.

Image: Sobebunny, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

creel (plural creels)

A woven basket, especially a wicker basket.
- For this purpose they got an old creel to put him in and some straw to light under it. Seeing the serious turn matters were likely to take, he resolved not to await the trial, but flew up the smoke-hole, and when at the top he cried out that things would have gone very differently with them had it...1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 393
Synonyms:

wick
1. An osier basket that anglers use to hold fish.
  - Return with a creel of trout for supper.1895, R. D. Blackmore, Slain By The Doones, Dodd, Mead and Company, page 6
  - Her great creel forehead-slung, she wanders nigh,
    Easing the heavy strap with gnarled, brown fingers1897, William Henley, In Fisherrow
2. (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.
3. (historical) Such a basket slung on a pack animal; a pannier.
A bar or set of bars with skewers for holding paying-off bobbins, as in the roving machine, throstle, and mule.

Verb (1)

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

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

Verb (2)

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

(Appalachia, Southern US) To wrench or sprain.
- 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...1916, The South Western Reporter, pages 883-884
- […] a "creeled foot " strapped to relieve strained muscles, […]1975, Marjorie Chalmers, Better I Stay, page 34

Proper noun capitalized: Creel

Creel (plural Creels)

A surname.

creel meaning in Tamil, Thai and Vietnamese

creel in Tamil

குழற்படல், தாங்கி, மீன் கூடை

creel in Thai

osier basket to hold fish: ข้อง kɔ̂ng

creel in Vietnamese

osier basket to hold fish: oi

Examples of creel in a sentence

For this purpose they got an old creel to put him in and some straw to light under it.1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 393:
He creeled his ankle when he jumped off the porch. […] Vinegar was a key ingredient in many remedies for a creeled ankle.2014 July 25, Anthony Cavender, Folk Medicine in Southern Appalachia, UNC Press Books, →ISBN, pages 114-115:

Synonyms of creel

wick

Forms of creel

Noun
plural	creels
Verb
third-person singular present	creels
present participle	creeling
past participle	creeled
past	creeled
Proper noun
plural	Creels

Origin of creel

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

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

Words formed from creel

Words that rhyme with creel

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about creel

What does creel mean?: Creel means a woven basket, especially a wicker basket.
What is creel in Tamil?: Creel in Tamil is குழற்படல், தாங்கி, மீன் கூடை. See Creel meaning in Tamil.
How do you use creel in a sentence?: For this purpose they got an old creel to put him in and some straw to light under it.
What part of speech is creel?: Creel can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce creel?: Creel is pronounced /kɹiːl/.
What is the plural of creel?: The plural of creel is creels.

Words near creel in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: creel (page history and authors); Creel (page history and authors); creel (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-creel.wav.

Cite this entry: “creel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/creel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.