reck, recche, rekke

i. & t. [A. S. récan (for rócian ), cogn. with O. Sax. rókian; O. H. Ger. rókhjan, ruokhjan; M. H. Ger. ruochen to reck; ruoch =care, heed; O. H. Ger. ruah, ruoh.] A. In trans.: To care, to heed; to have a care or thought. " Recking as little what betideth me." Shakesp.: Two Gentlemen of Verona, iv. 3. Frequently followed by of . "He reck'd not of the life he lost nor prize." Byron: Childe Harold , iv. 141. *B. Trans .: To heed, to regard; to have a care or thought for. "What recketh he his rider's angry stir?" Shakesp.: Venus and Adonis , 283. * It recks (used impersonally): It concerns. "Hym recketh nought what men recorden." Gower: C. A. , v. rěck-lě , *rec he-les, *rech-le e, *reck-le e, *retch-le , *resche-les, adj . [A. S. recceleás , receleás; cf. Dut. roekeloos .] Not recking or heeding; carele ; heedle of consequences; mindle , thoughtle ; rashly impetuous; foolhardy. "The fiercest and most reckle of partisans." -Macau lay: Hist. Eng., ch. vi. rěck-lě -lý, *rec he-le e-ly, adv. [English reckle ; -ly.] In a reckle manner; heedle ly, carele ly. "They ad, they imagined, been reckle ly, if not perfidiously, sent to certain destruction."-Macaulay: Hist. Eng ., ch. xiii. rěck-lě -ne , *rec he-les-ne e, s . [English reckle ; -ne .] The quality or state of being reckle ; heedle ne of consequences. "What seemed to his a ociates to be his unnatural reckle ne and audacity." -Macaulay: Hist. Eng . ch. v. trěck-ling, s. & a . [Prob. from reck , with dim in. suff. -ling .] A. As subst.: The smallest and weakest in a brood of animals; a delicate babe. "There lay the reckling, one But one, hour old." Tennyson: Lance lot and Elaine. B. As adj .: Weakest. "A mother dotes upon the reckling child More than the strong." Taylor : 2 Philip Van Artevelde , v. 3.