eek

See also: EEK, ÉÉK, Eek, eek’, and ээк

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: ēk, IPA^(key): /iːk/
• Homophone: eke
• Rhymes: -iːk

Etymology 1

Imitative; compare eep.

Interjection

eek

1. (onomatopoeia) Representing a scream or shriek (especially in comic strips and books).

   Eek! There's a mouse in the bathtub!

2. (onomatopoeia) Expressing (sometimes mock) fear or surprise.

   I almost got fired from my job yesterday. Eek!

3. (onomatopoeia) Representing the shrill vocal sound of a mouse, rat, or monkey.

Translations

scream or shriek

• French: hiii
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Spanish: chirrido (es) m

Verb

eek (third-person singular simple present eeks, present participle eeking, simple past and past participle eeked)

1. (onomatopoeia) To produce a high-pitched squeal, as in fear or trepidation.
   • 2009, Paul Gelder, Yachting Monthly's Further Confessions

     She was dangling the mouse by its tail, but as it tried to arch upwards and bite, she started to jig about wildly […] The anglers had watched a beautiful young woman dance naked beneath a full moon to the feverish rhythm of unworldly eeking noises!

   • 2011, Isaac E. Washington, The Stars in My Dreams (page 106)

     We saw a frog and she eeked in terror again from the sight of it hopping near her.

Etymology 2

Clipping of ecaf (“face”), from face via backslang.

Noun

eek (plural eeks)

1. (Polari) Face

   How bona to vada your eek! ― How good to see your face!

   • 2015 October 12, Adam Lowe, “Poem of the week: Vada That”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     Though she's a bimbo bit of hard, / she’s royal and tart. And girl, you know / vadaing her eek is always bona.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:countenance

Etymology 3

Adverb

eek (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) also
   • c. 1387: Geoffrey Chaucer, Canterbury Tales ("General Prologue")

     Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth / Inspired hath in every holt and heeth / The tendre croppes

Anagrams

• Kee, eke, kee

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Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch eec. Doublet of eik (“oak”).

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

eek f (plural eken, diminutive eekje n)

1. oak bark

Synonyms

• eikenschors

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Middle English

Adverb

eek

1. Alternative form of ek
   • 14th c. Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales. General Prologue: 5-6.

     Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth

     Inspired hath in every holt and heeth