heck
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See also: Heck
English[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Etymology 1[edit]
Late 19th century, originally dialectal northern English, from a euphemistic alteration of hell.[1][2]
Interjection[edit]
heck
- (euphemistic) Hell.
- What the heck are you doing?
Translations[edit]
euphemism of hell
Noun[edit]
heck (uncountable)
- (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]
- See under hell.
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
Etymology 2[edit]
See hatch (“a half door”).
Alternative forms[edit]
Noun[edit]
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[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.
- ^ Wright, Joseph (1902) The English Dialect Dictionary[1], volume 3, Oxford: Oxford University Press, page 125
Further reading[edit]
- “heck”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “heck”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
- heck at OneLook Dictionary Search
Anagrams[edit]
German[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Audio (file)
Verb[edit]
heck
Middle English[edit]
Noun[edit]
heck
- Alternative form of hacche
Categories:
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/ɛk
- Rhymes:English/ɛk/1 syllable
- English lemmas
- English interjections
- English euphemisms
- English terms with usage examples
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with obsolete senses
- en:Weaving
- English minced oaths
- German terms with audio links
- German non-lemma forms
- German verb forms
- German colloquialisms
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English nouns