tee hee

See also: teehee and tee-hee

English

Alternative forms

• tee-hee

Etymology

From Middle English tehee, te he, ti he, alteration of hehe, from Old English he he (“hee hee”).

Interjection

tee hee

1. The sound of a giggle.
   • 1593, Gabriel Harvey, Pierces Supererogation: Or A New Prayse of the Old Asse, London: […] Iohn Wolfe, →OCLC; republished as John Payne Collier, editor, Pierces Supererogation: Or A New Prayse of the Old Asse. A Preparative to Certaine Larger Discourses, Intituled Nashes S. Fame (Miscellaneous Tracts. Temp. Eliz. & Jac. I; no. 8), [London: [s.n.], 1870], →OCLC, page 181:

     She […] hath ſtiled him with an immortall penne, the bawewawe of ſchollars, the tutt of gentlemen, the tee-heegh of gentlewomen, the phy of citizens, the blurt of Courtiers, the poogh of good letters, the faph of good manners, and the whoop-hooe of good boyes in London ſtreetes.

   • 1980, Bill Oddie, Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book, page 97:

     Tee hee! Isn't that naughty?

Verb

tee hee (third-person singular simple present tee hees, present participle tee heeing, simple past and past participle tee heed or tee hee'd)

1. To utter tee hee; to make a high-pitched laugh; to titter.
   • 1956, Anthony Burgess, Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 70:

     That was more than could be said for those two bastards tee-heeing away over there by the bookshelves.

See also

• haha
• haw haw
• heh
• hehe
• ho ho ho
• tee hee hee