cheek v.1
to address in an impudent or insolent manner.
| [ | ![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | ‘Bashe Libel’ in May & Bryson Verse Libel 82: To speake like a Prelate, / To thinke like a Pilate / [...] / To cheack with his better]. |
| Lloyd’s Wkly Newspaper 16 June 1/1: ‘You’re not cheeking it, I don’t think,’ said a young urchin to a ragged pal. | |
| ‘Our Vestry’ Reprinted Pieces (1899) 247: Dogginson [...] informed another gentleman [...] that if he ‘cheek’d him’ he would resort to the extreme measure of knocking his blessed head off. | |
| Hillyars and Burtons (1870) 186: And with that end (as we used to say in those times) I ‘cheeked’ the detective. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Four Years at Yale 43: Cheek, brazen audacity. Used also as a verb. | |
| Tag, Rag & Co. 9: But you shouldn’t have cheeked ’em Tommy. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Bulletin (Sydney) 5 July 12/3: He told the kiddies to run away / And help mama, not cheek her . | |
| Herald (Melbourne) 27 Aug. 2/7: [He] boldly ‘cheeked’ me, using language which clearly showed that he, for his own good, should be immediately visited by a missionary. | |
| No. 5 John Street 259: If they cheek ’er, she’s sure to give it back agin. | |
 | Art News 10 Mar. 144: One of these days, I shall cheek her, I know I shall! | |
| Tell England (1965) 128: You’re a ripping chap, and I’m sorry if I ever cheeked you. | |
| Esex Newsman 12 july 3/2: He said he threw it at a friend who ‘cheeked’ him. | |
| Courtship of Uncle Henry 51: What was Freddy Welsh cheeking you about? | |
| Complete Molesworth (1985) 12: He [...] cheeks everybode. | |
| Adolescent Boys of East London (1969) 40: You do things you wouldn’t do on your own – smash things up, just for a laugh, or cheek some old man. | |
| Much Obliged, Jeeves 74: Different from a barmaid. She cheeks the chaps. | |
![[WI]](/static/img/flags/wi.png "West Indies") | Baby Mother and King of Swords 68: There were a lot of [...] pretty uptown girls who were cheeking him after he did stage shows, women who loved to hear the slackness. |
In phrases
to face down, to brazen out.
| (con. 1840s–50s) London Labour and London Poor I 406/1: Persons as was coming the same road persuaded me to go and beg with them, but I couldn’t cheek it. | |
| Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack 311: Instead of admitting his error, [he] ‘cheeked’ it out by saying, ‘But you was there, wasn’t you?’. | |
| Nottingham Eve. Post 28 Jan. 4/5: I told him if he’d send them in to the swell cribs he’d get a quid [...] but he said he couldn’t ‘cheek’ it. | |
| ‘College Words & Phrases’ in DN II:i 26: cheek, v. i. In phrase ‘cheek it,’ to go into recitation unprepared as if prepared. |
(US campus) to assume an air of (spurious) confidence.
| Student Sl. in Cohen (1997) 16: cheek [...] 2. v. Cheek it through. To assume an air of confidence. |