tee hee
English edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
From Middle English tehee, te he, ti he, alteration of hehe, from Old English he he (“hee hee”).
Interjection edit
tee hee
- 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 edit
tee hee (third-person singular simple present tee hees, present participle tee heeing, simple past and past participle tee heed or tee hee'd)
- 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.