eek
English edit
Pronunciation edit
- (Received Pronunciation) enPR: ēk, IPA(key): /iːk/
Audio (Southern England) (file) - (General American) IPA(key): /ik/
- Homophone: eke
- Rhymes: -iːk
Etymology 1 edit
Imitative
Interjection edit
eek (onomatopoeia)
- Representing a scream or shriek (especially in comic strips and books).
- Eek! There's a mouse in the bathtub!
- Expressing (sometimes mock) fear or surprise.
- I almost got fired from my job yesterday. Eek!
- Representing the shrill vocal sound of a mouse, rat, or monkey.
Translations edit
Verb edit
eek (third-person singular simple present eeks, present participle eeking, simple past and past participle eeked) (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.
- 2012, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Ratburger, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN:
- “Sorry, love, they all look the same to me,” said Dad, desperately trying to spot one with a particularly pink nose. “Armitage? ARMITAGE!” called Zoe. All the rats eeked. Every single one of them wanted to escape.
“We’ll just have to set them all free,” said Zoe.
- (slang, ethnic slur, offensive) Of a black person, to speak nonsense or gibberish.
See also edit
Etymology 2 edit
Clipping of ecaf (“face”), from face via backslang.
Noun edit
eek (plural eeks)
- (Polari) A face.
- How bona to vada your eek! ― How good to see your face!
- 1966, Barry Took, Marty Feldman, Round the Horne, season 2, spoken by either Julian or Sandy (either Hugh Paddick or Kenneth Williams):
- You have your Elizabeth Taylor done in half-tones, reclining on this chaise longue – that’s your actual French – decollete down to her ankles, with a wanton look all over her eek.
- 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.
- 2021, Daren Kay, “Twinkle, twinkle, little star”, in The Brightonians (ebook):
- [H]e plonked his corybungus down and turned his eek to the driver.
Synonyms edit
Etymology 3 edit
Adverb edit
eek (not comparable)
- Alternative form of eke (“also”)
Anagrams edit
Atong (India) edit
Etymology edit
Pronunciation edit
Numeral edit
eek (Bengali script এঽক)
Synonyms edit
References edit
- van Breugel, Seino. 2015. Atong-English dictionary, second edition. Available online: https://www.academia.edu/487044/Atong_English_Dictionary. Stated in Appendix 3.
Dutch edit
Etymology edit
From Middle Dutch eec. Doublet of eik (“oak”).
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
eek f (plural eken, diminutive eekje n)
Synonyms edit
Middle English edit
Adverb edit
eek
- 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- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
- 14th c. Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales. General Prologue: 5-6.
Tedim Chin edit
Etymology edit
From Proto-Kuki-Chin *ʔeek.
Noun edit
eek
References edit
- Zomi Ordbog based on the work of D.L. Haokip