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schmuck

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: Schmuck and schmück

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Yiddish שמאָק (shmok, penis, fool).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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schmuck (plural schmucks) (US, slang, derogatory, chiefly Jewish)

  1. A jerk; a person who is unlikable, detestable, or contemptible because they are stupid, foolish, clumsy, oafish, inept, malicious, or unpleasant.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:jerk
    • 1995 September, “The Playboy Interview: Cindy Crawford”, in Playboy:
      One day my girlfriend, her boyfriend and I were sunbathing topless because that's Barbados - you can wear nothing if you want. And the Pepsi guy walks up and with my agent to meet us for lunch. I wondered if I should put on my top because I have a business relationship with him. I didn't want him to get offended because the rest of the beach had seen me with my top off. Meanwhile, as he's walking towards me he's saying to my agent "I hope she puts on her top.". He wasn't even being a schmuck, like wanting to see.
    • 2010, Tom Oathout, AN AMERICAN SON[1]:
      “You’re an asshole whose best friends include Hitler’s wet dream and a Jew.”
      “Yea, well, I’m only friends with you because I want to shtoop your sister.”
      “Everybody wants to shtoop your sister,” Craig laughed.
      “No, everybody wants to shtoop Waters’ sister and you are not shtoopin’ my sister,” Joe replied. “None of you guys are shtooping my sister.”
      “Yea, we’ll see.”
      “In your dreams Jew boy,” Bruce continued.
      Schmuck.”
      Schmuck? Are you calling me a schmuck?”
      “Yea.”
      “Well, before I beat the crap out of you, what the fuck is a schmuck anyway?”
    • 2014 March 4, Nick Kroll, “Mercury Poisoning” (8:21 from the start), in Kroll Show[2], season 2, episode 8, spoken by George St. Geegland (John Mulaney):
      “You're born a schmuck and you'll die a schmuck. Welcome to hell, idiot.”
    • 2022 October 18, Placeholder McD, “SCP-7579 [offset 1]”, in SCP Foundation[3], archived from the original on 20 December 2024:
      "SCP-7579 developed internal camouflage so a shmuck like yourself would speculate on it, then convince a more powerful shmuck unlike myself to buy it time. It's probably smarter than us, it's definitely smarter than you, and every second of its existence exponentiates the time and resources I'll have to spend cleaning up your mess."
  2. A deplorable, pitiful person.
    poor schmuck
    • 1971, Jules Feiffer, directed by Mike Nichols, Carnal Knowledge, spoken by Jonathan (Jack Nicholson):
      Bad vibrations? Sandy, I love you, but you're a schmuck. You were always young, Sandy, open. You were schmucky a lot of the time, but maybe schmuckiness is what you need to stay young and open.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Verb

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schmuck (third-person singular simple present schmucks, present participle schmucking, simple past and past participle schmucked)

  1. (slang, intransitive, rare) To behave like a schmuck.
    • 2004, George Carlin, When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?:
      [] there's actually a shortage of schmucks in America. As a result, there's big money in schmucking. The average schmuck earns $28,000 a year, plus benefits.
  2. (slang, transitive, rare) To mash or smoosh.
    • 2008, Richard Powell, Rode Hard and Put Away Wet, page 171:
      His buddy was supposed to be arriving from Helena that morning but had schmucked a mule deer buck with his vehicle so there was going to be a delay.
    • 2020, Joseph Heywood, Shadow of the Wolf Tree, page 130:
      “She schmucked three deer on M-95,” del Olmo said. “I was two minutes behind her. Man, she blew them up! []
    • 2021, Victoria Pearle Hart, Ladies of the Mountain:
      Everyone gathered around the cake as Mitch and Liz prepared to cut the cake. She took a small piece in her hand, and Mitch said, "What are you doing with that, babe?" and she schmucked it into his mouth. He did the same right back.

See also

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German

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Middle Low German smuk (supple, bendsome, pleasing, beautiful, petite, cute) (compare Middle Low German smuk (ornament, jewellery)), from Old Saxon *smuk, *smukk, from Proto-Germanic *smukkaz (flexible, bendsome, easy).

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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schmuck (strong nominative masculine singular schmucker, comparative schmucker, superlative am schmucksten)

  1. (dated) pretty, spruce
    Synonym: hübsch

Declension

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Further reading

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  • schmuck” in Duden online
  • schmuck” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache