heck

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See also: Heck

English[edit]

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /hɛk/
    • Audio (UK)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛk

Etymology 1[edit]

Late 19th century, originally dialectal northern English, from a euphemistic alteration of hell.[1][2]

Interjection[edit]

heck

  1. (euphemistic) Hell.
    What the heck are you doing?
Translations[edit]

Noun[edit]

heck (uncountable)

  1. (euphemistic) Hell.
    You can go to heck as far as I'm concerned.
Usage notes[edit]

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[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

See hatch (“a half door”).

Alternative forms[edit]

Noun[edit]

heck (plural hecks)

  1. The bolt or latch of a door.
  2. A rack for cattle to feed at.
  3. (obsolete) A door, especially one partly of latticework.
  4. A latticework contrivance for catching fish.
  5. (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.
  6. A bend or winding of a stream.
Derived terms[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.
  2. ^ Wright, Joseph (1902) The English Dialect Dictionary‎[1], volume 3, Oxford: Oxford University Press, page 125

Further reading[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

German[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

heck

  1. singular imperative of hecken
  2. (colloquial) first-person singular present of hecken

Middle English[edit]

Noun[edit]

heck

  1. Alternative form of hacche
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