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cheek

Pronunciation: /t͡ʃiːk/

The English word “cheek” has 12 meanings listed here.

noun

  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.
  3. Impudence.
  4. One of the genae, flat areas on the sides of a trilobite's cephalon.
  5. One of the pieces of a machine, or of timber or stonework, that form corresponding sides or a similar pair.
  6. pump-cheek, pump-cheeks, a piece of wood cut out fork-shaped in which the brake is fastened by means of a bolt and can thus move around and move the upper box of the pump up and down
  7. The branches of a bridle bit.
  8. Either side of an axehead.
  9. The middle section of a flask, made so that it can be moved laterally, to permit the removal of the pattern from the mould.

verb

  1. To be impudent towards.
  2. To pull a horse's head back toward the saddle using the cheek strap of the bridle.
  3. To put or keep something in one’s cheek.

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”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Sooke (“cheek”), West Frisian tsjeak (“jaw”), Dutch kaak (“jaw; cheek”), Swedish käke (“jaw;…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.