geck

From Dutch gek or Low German geck, from an imitative verb found in North Sea Germanic and Scandinavian/North Germanic meaning "to croak, cackle," and also "to mock, cheat" (Dutch gekken, German gecken, Danish gjække, Swedish gäcka).

• IPA^(key): /ɡɛk/

• Audio (Southern England)

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• Rhymes: -ɛk

geck (countable and uncountable, plural gecks)

1. Scorn; derision; contempt.
2. (archaic, derogatory, poetic) Fool; idiot; imbecile.
   • 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iv]:

     To become the geck and scorn / O' the other's villainy.

   • 1859, George Eliot, “IX Hetty's World”, in Adam Bede‎, HTML edition, published 2010, archived from the original on 5 April 2012:

     … for where’s the use of a woman having brains of her own if she’s tackled to a geck as everybody’s a-laughing at?

geck (third-person singular simple present gecks, present participle gecking, simple past and past participle gecked)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To jeer; to show contempt for.
   • 1816, [Walter Scott], The Antiquary. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC:

     I brought her frae England, and, during our whole journey, she gecked and scorned at my northern speech and habit

2. To cheat or trick.

• Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia