cheek
Forms
- Plural
- cheeks
- present (v1)
- cheek
- past (v2)
- cheeked
- past participle (v3)
- cheeked
- present participle
- cheeking
- 3rd person singular
- cheeks
Definitions
1.The soft skin on each side of the face, below the eyes; the outer surface of the sides of the oral cavity.
2.The lower part of the buttocks that is often exposed beneath very brief underwear, swimwear, or extremely short shorts.(informal)
3.Impudence.(informal)
- You’ve got some cheek, asking me for money!
4.One of the genae, flat areas on the sides of a trilobite's cephalon.(informal)
1.To be impudent towards.
- Don't cheek me, you little rascal!
- 'Well, I do live next door,' I said, in no way antagonistically, and yet I immediately felt as if I had cheeked the headmistress.
- We cheeked him over the fence until he chased us off, and then we went down to the Walton Road and cheeked the carters, keeping on the other side of the hedge so.
2.To pull a horse's head back toward the saddle using the cheek strap of the bridle.
- He cheeked the horse and stepped into the saddle.
- Such horses might need to be "cheeked" for a while.
- Thurman caught the bridle headstall and cheeked the horse's head near his left knee when he swung aboard.
3.To put or keep something in one’s cheek.
- The squirrel cheeked some nuts before heading back to its nest.
Frequency
Overall
Uncommon· #3114
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Rare
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Uncommon
Etymology
From Middle English cheeke, cheke, cheoke, choke, from Old English ċēce, ċēace, ċēoce (“cheek; jaw”), from Proto-West Germanic *kākā, *keukā (“jaw, cheek”), from Proto-Germanic *kēkǭ, *keukǭ (“jaw; palate; pharynx”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *ǵyewh₁- (“to chew”).