▪ I. † acker1 Obs. or dial.
Also aker, akyr, aiker.
[Of uncertain origin; probably a variant of eagre n., the ‘bore’ on tidal rivers, called by Lyly agar.]
† 1. ? Flood tide; bore; strong current in the sea. Obs.
| c 1440 Prom. 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. |
▪ II. acker2 slang (orig. Services').
(ˈækə)
Also akka, akker.
[Prob. ad. Arab. fakka small change, coins; app. first among British and allied troops in Egypt.]
1. Mil. A piastre.
| 1937 Partridge Dict. Slang 7/2 Akka, an Egyptian piastre: Regular Army's: from ca. 1920. 1948 B. Pearson in C. K. Stead N.Z. Short Stories (1966) 125 Well, the cheapest thing was twenty ackers, I had only ten till pay-day. a 1963 J. Lusby in ‘B. James’ Austral. Short Stories (1963) 239 ‘See who it was?’ ‘No.’ ‘The long red guy—pounds to ackers,’ said Rafe. 1976 G. Talbot Permission to Speak iii. 39 Piastres were not suffering, except from the contemptuous slang of British troops who called them ‘ackers’. |
2. gen. Usu. in pl. Money, cash; coins or bank-notes.
| 1939 Airman's Gaz. Dec., Useful for drilling holes in the pay bobs when the ackers are short. 1946 J. Irving Royal Navalese 21 Akka, money. 1958 M. K. Joseph I'll soldier no More ix. 166 'Ow 'bout this, Sarge?..There's some akkers in it - francs. 1965 H. R. F. Keating Is Skin-deep, is Fatal xix. 229, I can't offer a great deal in the way of ackers. Though you'd get your ten per cent, old man. 1977 D. Clark Gimmel Flask ix. 166 Saves a few ackers, I suppose. 1980 R. Adams Girl in Swing (1981) xix. 243 These buggers, they're all into the ackers—swamp us tomorrow before we can make two bids. |
▪ III. acker
obs. form of acre.