BECK, or BEKE, a word which imports a small stream of water issuing from some burn or spring. Hence Hell-becks, little brooks in the rough and wild mountains about Richmond near Lancashire, so called on account of their ghafliness and depth.
BECK is chiefly used among us in the composition of names of places originally situated on rivulets: hence Walbeck, Bournbeck, &c. The Germans use beck in the same manner.