shmekl

English

Etymology

Borrowing from Yiddish שמעקל (shmekl), diminutive of שמאָק (shmok), “penis; contemptible person”. Compare schmuck.

Noun

shmekl

1. (slang, vulgar) a penis
   • 1993, Carl Reiner, All Kinds of Love, page 117:

     Here, Leon, put on your bathrobe. It's not nice talking to a young lady with your shmekl hanging out.

   • 2011, Scott Sherman, Bad for the Jews, page 93:

     Look, virtuous or depraved, there’s no law against a man making a living starring in films in which he sticks his shmekl into anything that moves, and possibly things that don't.

2. (slang, derogatory) a fool, a jerk, a contemptible person
   • 1978, Curt Leviant, The Yemenite Girl, page 110:

     And then a year later some young American-born shmekl who doesn't know the first thing about Hebrew, who obviously hasn't devoted his life to it — I had never even heard of him then — comes along and translates “The Yemenite Girl” into English.

   • 2000, David Bernstein, Diamonds & Demons: The Joseph Gutnick Story, page 80:

     There were people in Israel working all their lives in politics, and here was this rich young shmekl (‘little prick’) from Australia, a gvir, suddenly become’s ^[sic] the Rebbe’s emissary!