BECK, or BECK (Saxon, bece; Dutch, beek), a word which imports a small stream of water issuing from some hill or spring. Hence hellbecks, little brooks in the rough and wild mountains about Richmond in Yorkshire, so called from their ghastliness and depth. Beck is also used in the composition of names of places originally situated on rivulets; hence Walbeck, Bournbeck, &c. The Germans use beck or bach in the same manner; as Lübeck, Griesbach.