Cree

Cree  (kr)

n. pl. Cree or Crees

1.

a. A Native American people inhabiting a large area from eastern Canada west to Alberta and the Great Slave Lake. Formerly located in central Canada, the Cree expanded westward and eastward in the 17th and 18th centuries, the western Cree adopting the Plains Indian life and the eastern Cree retaining their woodland culture.

b. A member of this people.

2. The Algonquian language of the Cree.

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[French Cris, shortening of Cristineaux, name of a 17th-century Cree band, from Ojibwa (Old Algonquin) kiritino·, from Cree.]

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cree [kriː]

n

(Group Games / Games, other than specified) South Wales and southwest English dialect temporary immunity from the rules of a game: said by children

[of unknown origin]

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Cree [kriː]

n

1. (Social Science / Peoples) pl Cree, Crees a member of a North American Indian people living in Ontario, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba

2. (Linguistics / Languages) the language of this people, belonging to the Algonquian family

3. (Linguistics / Letters of the Alphabet (Foreign)) a syllabic writing system of this and certain other languages

[from first syllable of Canadian French Christianaux, probably based on Ojibwa Kenistenoag (tribal name)]

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	Cree - a member of an Algonquian people living in central Canada Algonquian, Algonquin - a member of any of the North American Indian groups speaking an Algonquian language and originally living in the subarctic regions of eastern Canada; many Algonquian tribes migrated south into the woodlands from the Mississippi River to the Atlantic coast
	2.	Cree - the Algonquian language spoken by the Cree Algonquian language, Algonquin, Algonquian - family of North American Indian languages spoken from Labrador to South Carolina and west to the Great Plains