heck, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

heck n.

also hekky, hicks

a euph. for hell; with the, a euph. for hell, the phr.

1805		Morn. Post (London) 25 May 4/2: Madcap, Brown Mare aged, by Fortunio, dam by Holy-heck, a good hunter.
1882		Blackburn Times 30 Dec. 2/3: ‘What the hekky are yo singin theer for?’.
1887		T. Darlington Folk-speech S. Cheshire n.p.: What the heck are you up to? [OED].
1907		C.E. Mulford Bar-20 xxiv: Buck [...] muttered incredulously: ‘What th’ heck!’.
1908		H. Green Maison De Shine 94: In th’ name of Heck, what’s comin’ off?
1912		Mansfield (OH) News 7 Dec. 10/3: The Clean Language League of America, which is plum nuts about being dead set against slang, [...] -- not because it cares a whoop, but because such things always sound like heck to strangers.
1922		Tomahawk (Becker Co., MN) 24 Aug. 3/5: What the blue heck was that?
1922		Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 21 Dec. 2/4: Why the heck can’t we carry aboot a stock o’ grub for these hard times.
1930		Hull Dly Mail 9 July 10/2: What the heck ails that chicken, Bill?
1935		C.G. Finney Circus of Dr Lao 37: Now I ain’t got a heck of a lot of money.
1941		Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 14 June 7/3: Everybody [...] is eager to know when the heck you are coming home.
1941		A. Gurney Bluey & Curley 1 Mar. [synd. cartoon strip] Where the heck is me and me cobber supposed to sit.
1942		Whizzbang Comics 94: What the heck’s goin’ on?
1948		Sun. Post (Lanarks.) 7 Mar. 11/2: [headline] Mr Davies Had a Heck of a Week!
1948		Sun. Post (Lanarks.) 25 Jan. 3/1: How the heck do our dictators keep track of them?
1952		Mad mag. Oct.–Nov. 10: Mom will whale the heck out of us.
1953		J. Thompson Savage Night (1991) 135: The heck they didn’t concern him!
1959		B. Naughton ‘The Tell-tale Clock’ in Late Night on Watling Street (1969) 111: Wha the heck’s a tell-tale clock?
1960		T. Southern ‘Red-dirt Marijuana’ in Southern (1973) 19: What the heck is it then?
1961		R. Gover One Hundred Dollar Misunderstanding 15: What the heck!
1964		‘Charles Barrett’ Address: Kings Cross 83: So was offered more – a heck of a lot more.
1973		‘Battling Battalino’ in Heller In This Corner (1974) 140: I punched the hicks out of him.
1979		Fantastic Four Annual 7: Till we get the heck outta this kamikaze playpen!
1983		A-Team Storybook 30: ‘What the heck’s I.U.P?’ asked the customs man.
1987		‘Joe Bob Briggs’ Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-In 7: Get the heck out of this story.
1996		H. Roth From Bondage 163: It happens that I come from a past a helluva, I mean a heck of a lot longer than any of their goyish ones.
1999		‘Master Pimp’ Pimp’s Rap 108: Sampson, the bondsman, could give me the rundown on this snowflake whore. But what the heck. She’s probably cool.
2000		Observer Screen 23 Jan. 16: Do we care that heads may roll? Do we heck.
2001		J. Stahl Plainclothes Naked (2002) 119: To heck with Rubert!
2004		(con. 1960s-70s) T. Taylor Top Fellas 88/1: Cherubic as all heck.
2008		Radio 4 24 July [BBC radio] [News item on centenary of Ford Model T motorcar] It’s a heck of a better thing than the horse which preceded it.
2018		C. Hammer Scrublands [ebook] What the heck, he isn’t ready to become a transcript journalist just yet.
2024		Bluesky 31 Jan. 🌐 [H]ow the heck is he unable to afford a £2000 a month mortgage on a salary of nearly £120,000?