Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To try to embarrass and annoy (someone speaking or performing in public) by questions, gibes, or objections; badger.
- v. To comb (flax or hemp) with a hatchel.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An instrument for cleaning, sorting, and straightening raw flax and hemp: same as hatchel.
- To comb, as flax or hemp; hatchel.
- To question, especially in a severe or antagonistic manner, as a parliamentary candidate in Great Britain.
Wiktionary
- v. transitive To insult, tease, make fun of or badger.
GNU Webster's 1913
- Same as hackle.
- v. To interrogate, or ply with questions, esp. with severity or antagonism, as a candidate for the ministry.
- v. To shout questions or jibes at (a public speaker), so as to disconcert him or render his talk ineffective.
WordNet 3.0
- v. comb with a heckle
- n. a comb for separating flax fibers
- v. challenge aggressively
Etymologies
- Transferred usage of hekelen (to comb flax or hemp with a heckle), from Middle English hekele (a comb for flax or hemp), from Middle Dutch hekelen (to prickle, irritate), from Proto-Germanic *hakilōnan (related to hackle) (Wiktionary)
- Middle English hekelen, to comb with a hatchel, from hekel, hatchel, from Middle Dutch; see keg- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The heckle is the first chink in our civility towards our government institutions and our heritage that sets us apart from other nations.”
“Republicans, meanwhile, rallied around Wilson, with many saying a planned resolution disapproving of Wilson's heckle is a petty partisan distraction from more serious issues.”
“Then I got quite a minor heckle from the audience.”
“The best thing to come out of the Presidents Cup was the spirit under which it was played, with nary a heckle from the gallery or a charge across any green.”
“If you pay for my ticket I'm more than happy to heckle from the back row. (”
kateelliott: Hawaii Books and Music Festival May 16-17, 2009
“A heckle is a challenge; whispered or invisible to you comments are gossip.”
“The odd thing about this kind of heckle is that it has become almost obligatory.”
“I did not "heckle" Attorney General Mukasey, and I did not disrupt the meeting, as those who watch the video of his speech on the Federalist Society's website will discover.”
“And if I protest a law that I consider unjust or "heckle" a speaker who promotes a view that I disagree with, I do not suddenly gain the right to attempt to deny a speaker the right to the opposing view.”
“He did not "heckle" as much as he enumerated specific types of fallacies on the part of Dr. Craig.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘heckle’.
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Talk Talk
Words for Talking
( open list, randomness )squawk, gab, chatter, chitchat, blab, prattle, blather, discuss, hector, plead, cajole, harangue and 200 more...
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EN-HU - important words for a HU inte...
Words only (I left out the expressions) from Geza Kerenyi's EN-HU interpreters' dictionary. Most of them pose some difficulty when interpreted between HU and EN in either or both directions.
abalone, abrasive, abstractionist, abstruse, abysmal, academia, accessibility, accessible, acclimate, accolade, accompanist, achiever and 1469 more...
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Pickle and such
Words that end like pickle. Listed here because they're funny (because they end like pickle).
pickle, sparkle, yokel, tinkle, fickle, prickle, trickle, circle, snorkel, ensnorkel, chuckle, buckle and 137 more...
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Off label definitions
Commonly used words with multiple meanings, the others being obscure or rarely used. Good to know for that dang analogy exam.
marquise, navette, indorse, crew, defile, poop, straiten, heckle, frit, notate, oblate, hotspur and 16 more...
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How Dare You!
The ways and means of insult
belaud, asteism, charientism, slander, libel, disparage, asperse, denigrate, defame, dis, mycterism, execrate and 2 more...
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ChortleGiggleSnort
Significant Words- Guiding you on your path to Snazzibility
flimsy, feeble, ranting, ramble, narky, snazzy, yoghurt, bulbous, pustule, globulous, geranium, megalomaniac and 521 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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What Do You Mean $
ahh these hurt.....
hermit, prone, maxim, guise, solvenly, lurid, lax, amiable, irate, cloister, mediate, nettle and 100 more...
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wunderkammer's Words
smarmy, bubkes, elucidate, togs, aeolian, carp, kibosh, bosky, ramshackle, mange, harpy, effervesce and 163 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, H
hurlyburly, hurtle, hodgepodge, heartwood, hatch, halo, hooptedoodle, hacienda, hairpin, heyday, hardscrabble, hopper and 208 more...
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Fun Words
Words that have funny meanings or are just fun to say.
kumquat, chimichanga, sarsparilla, rutabaga, rumpus, flummox, encrusted, prestidigitation, pomegranate, preposterous, dentiloquist, sepulchre and 323 more...
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Critischism
Divisive devices; emissary of Momus.
peevology, pessimize, philippic, philopolemic, billingsgate, charientism, criticaster, ludification, flyting, miserabilism, misprize, admonish and 145 more...
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hustle & bustle
-le verbs
gargle, dangle, dingle, bristle, cajole, girdle, doodle, stumble, wamble, jostle, hustle, bustle and 61 more...
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verb
that's what's happening...
slither, galumph, bamboozle, befuddle, burgle, fluster, chortle, commiserate, finagle, flummox, filch, gargle and 77 more...
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ziz's Words
penumbra, sialogogue, marshmallow, visigoth, cat, googolplex, vanillin, polaroid, heckle, umbrella, parasol, palanquin and 1 more...
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OrbitalCombustion's Words
nepenthe, phrontistery, peregrination, pervicacious, sinistrality, phallogocentric, prolixity, leptokurtic, ineffable, haecceity, lucubration, vicissitudes and 1026 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for heckle.
zeke two cents Feb 24, 2012