heck
See also: Heck
English
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /hɛk/
Audio (UK) (file)
- Rhymes: -ɛk
Etymology 1
Late 19th century, originally dialectal northern English, from a euphemistic alteration of hell.[1][2]
Interjection
heck
- (euphemistic) Hell.
- What the heck are you doing?
Translations
euphemism of hell
|
Noun
heck (uncountable)
- (euphemistic) Hell.
- You can go to heck as far as I'm concerned.
Usage notes
Heck usually only replaces hell in idiomatic expressions or as a generic intensifier or vulgarity. It is only rarely, and for intentionally jocular effect, used as a euphemism for the actual concept of hell.
Synonyms
- See under hell.
Derived terms
- oh my heck
Translations
euphemism of hell
|
Etymology 2
See hatch (“a half door”).
Alternative forms
- hack
Noun
heck (plural hecks)
- The bolt or latch of a door.
- A rack for cattle to feed at.
- (obsolete) A door, especially one partly of latticework.
- A latticework contrivance for catching fish.
- (weaving) An apparatus for separating the threads of warps into sets, as they are wound upon the reel from the bobbins, in a warping machine.
- A bend or winding of a stream.
Derived terms
- at heck and manger
References
- Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.
- Wright, Joseph (1902) The English Dialect Dictionary, volume 3, Oxford: Oxford University Press, page 125
Further reading
- heck in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- heck in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
- heck at OneLook Dictionary Search
Anagrams
- chek
German
Pronunciation
Audio (file)
Verb
heck
- singular imperative of hecken
- (colloquial) first-person singular present of hecken
Middle English
Noun
heck
- Alternative form of hacche