Obs. or dial.; also aker, akyr, aiker. [Of uncertain origin; probably a variant of EAGER sb., the ‘bore’ on tidal rivers, called by Lyly agar.]
† 1. ? Flood tide; bore; strong current in the sea. Obs.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 8. Akyr of the see flowynge [1499 aker], Impetus maris.
a. 1500[?]. Knyghthode & Batayle, Ms. Cott. Titus A xxiii. 49, quoted in Prom. Parv., 8. Wel know they the remue yf it a-ryse, An aker is it clept, I vnderstonde, Whos myght there may no shippe or wynd wyt stonde. This remue in th’ occian of propre kynde Wyt oute wynde hathe his commotioun.
1552. Huloet, Abecedarium, Aker of the sea, whiche preventeth [= precedes] the flowde or flowynge, impetus maris.
2. A ripple, furrow or disturbance of the surface of water; a ‘cat’s-paw.’ dial.
1808. Jamieson, Scot. Dict., Aiker, the motion, break, or movement, made by a fish in the water, when swimming fast.
1865. Way, in Prom. Parv., 8. In Craven Dial., Acker is a ripple on the water.
1865. Provincialism, in Cornhill Mag., July, 34. Sailors at sea name it when seen on a larger scale by the expressive term ‘cats-paw.’ The North-country peasant, however, knows it by the name ‘acker,’ implying, as it were, a space ploughed up by the wind.
