Heading
1867. North Briton, June 5. 'Royal Dramatic College.' We shall not soon forget seeing, during our visit to the Fair last July, a number of ladies dressed up as jockeys, confined, like so many chattering monkeys, in a cage, cheeking up to gentlemen, selling them 'k'rect cards,' etc.
Cheek-Ache. To have the
cheek-ache, phr. (common).—To
be made to blush; to be
abashed. [From cheek, the
face, + ache, a metaphorical
exaggeration of the pain of
blushing.]
Cheekiness, subs. (colloquial).—Impudence;
effrontery; cool
audacity.
1847. Illustrated London News, 28 Aug. p. 142, col. 1. They were beat . . . by their slow, loggy stroke, and by their cheekiness. [m.]
1854. Martin and Aytoun, Bon Gualtier Ballads, 'Francesca da Rimini.' There's wont to be at conscious times like these. An affectation of a bright-eyed ease,—A crispy-cheekiness, if so I dare. Describe the swaling of a jaunty air.
1857. A. Trollope, Three Clerks, ch. xliv. He lived but on the cheekiness of his gait and habits; he had become member of Parliament, Government official, railway director, and club aristocrat, merely by dint of cheek.
Cheekish, adj. (colloquial).—Audacious;
impudent; saucy.
[From cheek + ish.]
1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I., p. 248. Being cheekish (saucy) to the beadle.
Cheeks, subs. (old).—1. The posteriors.
For synonyms, see
Blind-cheeks: to which may
be added toby; stern; catastrophe;
latter-end; jacksy-pardo;
and juff.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulgar Tongue.
2. (old).—An accomplice.
1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3 ed., p. 448. I have seen cheeks (a flash name for an accomplice).
Cheeks and Ears.—A fantastic
name for a kind of head-dress,
of temporary fashion.
(?) Lond. Prod., iv., 3, Suppl. to Sh., II., 511, Fr. O then thou canst tell how to help me to cheeks and ears. L. Yes, mistress, very well. Fl. S. Cheeks and ears! why, mistress Frances, want you cheeks and ears? methinks you have very fair ones. Fr. Thou art a fool indeed, Tom, thou knowest what I mean. Civ. Ay, ay, Kester; 'tis such as they wear a their heads.
Cheeks the Marine, subs. phr.
(nautical).—Mr. Nobody. An
imaginary personage on board
ship created and popularised by
Captain Marryat. The epithet
has, likewise, passed into a byword
as a sarcastic rejoinder to
a foolish or incredible story—'tell
that to Cheeks the
marine.'
1833. Marryat, Peter Simple (ed. 1846), vol. I., ch. vii., p. 36. I enquired who, and he said Cheeks the marine.
1878-80. Justin McCarthy, History of Our Own Times, II., ch.xiii., p. 15 (1848). Cheeks the Marine was a personage very familiar at that time to the readers of Captain Marryat's sea stories, and the name of that mythical hero appeared with bewildering iteration in the petition.
1883. Clark Russell, Sailors' Language. Cheeks the marine: an imaginary being in a man-of-war.
Cheeky, adj. (colloquial).—Coolly
presumptuous; impudent or
saucy. Fr., insolpé.
1859. H. Kingsley, Geoffrey Hamlyn, ch. xxvi. 'You will find, Sir,' said Lee, 'that these men in this here hut are a rougher lot than you think for; very like they'll be cheeky.'
1860. Punch, vol. XXXIX., p. 30. 'The Volunteer on July fourteenth.' But that Ass Snivens—a coming it as cheeky as could be.
