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gleek

Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A jest; a scoff; a trick or deception.
  • noun An enticing or wanton glance.
  • noun In music, same as glee
  • noun An old game at cards played by three persons, with forty-four cards, each person having twelve, and eight being left for the stock.
  • noun Three cards of a sort in this game, as three aces, three kings, etc. Hence— Three of anything.
  • To ridicule; deride; scoff at.
  • To make sport; gibe; sneer.
  • To pass time sportively or frivolously; frolic.
  • In the game of gleek, to gain a decided advantage over.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete A jest or scoff; a trick or deception.
  • noun obsolete An enticing look or glance.
  • intransitive verb obsolete To make sport; to gibe; to sneer; to spend time idly.
  • noun obsolete A game at cards, once popular, played by three persons.
  • noun obsolete Three of the same cards held in the same hand; -- hence, three of anything.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A once popular game of cards played by three people.
  • noun Three of the same cards held in one hand; three of everything.
  • noun slang A geek who is involved in a glee club, choir, or singing.
  • noun A jest or scoff; trick or deception.
  • noun An enticing glance or look.
  • noun Good fortune; luck.
  • noun informal A stream of saliva from a person's mouth.
  • verb archaic To jest, ridicule, or mock; to make sport of.
  • verb informal To discharge a long, thin stream of liquid, (including saliva) through the teeth or from under the tongue, sometimes by pressing the tongue against the salivary glands.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle French, from Old French glic ("a game of cards"), of Germanic origin, from or related to Middle High German glücke, gelücke ("luck"); or from or related to Middle Dutch gelīc ("like, alike"). More at luck, like.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Blend of glee and geek

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Of North Germanic origin, ultimately from Old Norse *gleikr, leikr ("sport, play, game"), from Proto-Germanic *galaikaz (“jump, play”), from Proto-Indo-European *(e)lAig'- (“to jump, spring, play”). Cognate with Old English ġelācan ("to play a trick on, delude"), Scots glaik ("a glance of the eye, deception, trick", n.), Scots glaik ("to trick, trifle with", v.). More at lake.

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Examples

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synonyms (6)

Words with the same meaning

  1. deception
  2. gibe
  3. jest
  4. mock
  5. scoff
  6. sneer

cross-references (2)

Cross-references

  1. dutch gleek
  2. to give the gleek

Comments

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  • arby commented on the word gleek

    (obs.): gibe or jibe, flout, jeer, scoff, fleer, taunt, sneer, quip, fling, twit, wipe (dial. or slang), slap in the face.

    May 6, 2007

  • jinglebelljosie commented on the word gleek

    16th and 17th century game of cards for three players

    November 8, 2008

  • john commented on the word gleek

    According to Wikipedia and Double-Tongued, it also means squirting saliva directly from the salivary glands.

    And it's the name of a blue space monkey sidekick from the old Super Friends.

    Used by Shakespeare, too, in Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream.

    November 8, 2008

  • jinglebelljosie commented on the word gleek

    an enticing glance

    March 1, 2009

  • lampbane commented on the word gleek

    A fan of the show Glee, as dubbed by FOX.

    November 21, 2009

  • uselessness commented on the word gleek

    So Fox actually promotes this word, even though John's definition below is widely known? Maybe not the best marketing decision ever made...

    November 21, 2009

  • lampbane commented on the word gleek

    I can't embed, so a link to the commercial will have to do.

    They're also having an online competition called "Biggest GLEEk."

    November 21, 2009

  • milosrdenstvi commented on the word gleek

    See also shakespearean insult service, thou gleeking, beef-witted moldwarp

    November 21, 2009

  • chained_bear commented on the word gleek

    "'Have ye a deck of cards in the house?'

    'What? I—yes, of course.'

    'Bring them, then,' he said with a smile. 'Gleek, loo, or brag, your choice.'"

    —Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 516

    February 1, 2010

  • Gammerstang commented on the word gleek

    (noun) - A joke, a jeer, a scoff. In some of the notes on this word it has been supposed to be connected with the card-game of gleek; but it was not recollected that the Saxon language supplied the term glig, ludibrium, and doubtless a corresponding verb. Thus glee signifies mirth and jocularity; and gleeman or gligman, a minstrel or joculator. Gleek was therefore used to express a stronger sort of joke, a scoffing. It does not appear that the phrase to give the gleek was ever introduced in the above game, which was borrowed by us from the French and derived from an original of very different import from the word in question . . . To give the minstrel is no more than a punning phrase for giving the gleek. Minstrels and jesters were anciently called gleekmen or gligmen.

    --Rev. Alexander Dyce's Glossary to the Works of Shakespeare, 1902

    January 16, 2018