reek

Etymology 1

From Middle English rek, reke (“smoke”), from Old English rēc, rīec, from Proto-West Germanic *rauki, from Proto-Germanic *raukiz, from Proto-Indo-European *rowgi-. See also West Frisian reek, riik, Dutch rook, Low German Röök, German Rauch, Danish røg, Norwegian Bokmål røyk; also Lithuanian rū̃kti (“to smoke”), rū̃kas (“smoke, fog”), Albanian regj (“to tan”).

noun

1. A strong unpleasant smell.
2. (Scotland) Vapour; steam; smoke; fume.
   1768, Alexander Ross (poet), "Helenore; or, the fortunate Shepherdess": a Poem in the Broad Scoth Dialect Now, by this time, the sun begins to leam, And lit the hill-heads with his morning beam; And birds, and beasts, and folk to be a-steer, And clouds o’ reek frae lum heads to appear.

Etymology 2

From Middle English reken (“to smoke”), from Old English rēocan, from Proto-West Germanic *reukan, from Proto-Germanic *reukaną, from Proto-Indo-European *rougi-. See above. Related to Dutch ruiken, Low German rüken, German riechen, Danish ryge, Swedish ryka.

verb

1. (intransitive) To have or give off a strong, unpleasant smell.
   You reek of perfume.
   Your fridge reeks of egg.
2. (intransitive, figurative) To be evidently associated with something unpleasant.
   The boss appointing his nephew as a director reeks of nepotism.
3. (archaic, intransitive) To be emitted or exhaled, emanate, as of vapour or perfume.
4. (archaic, intransitive) To emit smoke or vapour; to steam.
   […] innumerable Legions of his Angels of Light, the warm gleames of whose presence is able to make the Mountains to reek and smoak, and to awake that fiery principle that lies dormient in the Earth into a devouring flame. 1660, Henry More, An Explanation of the Grand Mystery of Godliness, page 236
5. (transitive, rare) To cause (something) to smell.
   The slaughter of lambs in offering reeked the fore-courts of the Temple. 1880, Lew Wallace, Ben-Hur
   [I]f we get caught we're for the gibbet and the chains. Our flesh will reek the wind. 2017, Benjamin Myers, The Gallows Pole, Bloomsbury, published 2019, page 43

Etymology 3

Probably a transferred use (after Irish cruach (“stack (of corn), pile, mountain, hill”)) of a variant of rick, with which it is cognate.

noun

1. (Ireland) A hill; a mountain.