keck

• IPA^(key): /kɛk/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛk

Imitative. Compare German köken (“to vomit”).

keck (third-person singular simple present kecks, present participle kecking, simple past and past participle kecked)

1. (intransitive) To heave or retch as if to vomit.
   • 1728, Jonathan Swift, “A Dialogue between Mad Mullinix and Timothy”, in Thomas Sheridan and John Nichols, editors, The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, […], new edition, volume VII, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1801, →OCLC, page 404:

     The faction (is it not notorious?) / Keck at the memory of Glorious [William III of England]: […]

   • 1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, published 1959, →OCLC:

     Indeed Erskine never opened his mouth, in Watt's presence, except to eat, or belch, or cough, or keck, or muse, or sigh, or sing, or sneeze.

• keckish

From earlier dialectal kex, of Celtic origin, probably from the same ultimate source as Latin cicuta (“hemlock”).

keck (uncountable)

1. (dialectal) The cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris).

From Manx keck (“shit”).

keck (uncountable)

1. (Isle of Man) animal dung

• 1924, Sophia Morrison, Edmund Goodwin, A vocabulary of the Anglo-Manx dialect (page 98).

• keck-handed (probably etymologically unrelated)

From Middle High German kec, Upper German form of quec, from Old High German quec, from Proto-West Germanic *kwiku, from Proto-Germanic *kwikwaz, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷih₃wós (“alive”).

The Central German form survives in Quecksilber and erquicken. From Low German stems the doublet quick (chiefly in quicklebendig). Cognate with Dutch kwiek, English quick; further with Latin vīvus, Russian живой (živoj).

• IPA^(key): /kɛk/

• Audio

  (file)

keck (strong nominative masculine singular kecker, comparative kecker, superlative am kecksten)

1. sassy; cheeky (bold and spirited)

   Synonyms: kess, frech

• Keckheit

• Quecksilber
• quick
• erquicken

• Dutch: kek
• Danish: kæk
• Norwegian: kjekk
• Swedish: käck

• “keck” in Duden online
• “keck” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

• IPA^(key): /kɛk/

From Old Irish cacc (“dung, excrement”), from Proto-Celtic *kakkā, from Proto-Indo-European *kakka- (“to shit”).

keck m (genitive singular keck, plural keckyn)

1. faeces, excrement, defecation
2. droppings
3. dung, ordure
4. (vulgar) shit, crap

keck

1. (vulgar) Shit!, Fuck!, Crap!

From Old Irish caccaid (“excretes”, verb), from cacc (“dung, excrement”). See Etymology 1 above.

keck (verbal noun keckey, past participle keckit)

1. to excrete, defecate
2. (vulgar) to shit, crap