Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • interjection Used as a mild oath.
  • noun An outstanding or noteworthy example.
  • noun Used as an intensive.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The bend or winding of a stream.
  • noun A door with an open or latticework panel, or having its upper part hinged independently of the lower part.
  • noun A latticed gate.
  • noun A rack for holding fodder for cattle.
  • noun A contrivance for catching fish, made in the form of a latticework or grating: as, a salmon-heck.
  • noun In weaving, one of two or more vertical frames with gratings having eyes for receiving the warp-threads, each eye receiving one thread of the warp, and the alternate vertical motion of the gratings separating the warp-threads to form an opening or shed for the passage of the shuttle.
  • noun A latch or bolt, for fastening a door.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Prov. Eng. The bolt or latch of a door.
  • noun Prov. Eng. A rack for cattle to feed at.
  • noun Prov. Eng. A door, especially one partly of latticework; -- called also heck door.
  • noun A latticework contrivance for catching fish.
  • noun (Weaving) An apparatus for separating the threads of warps into sets, as they are wound upon the reel from the bobbins, in a warping machine.
  • noun Prov. Eng. A bend or winding of a stream.
  • noun the lower half of a door.
  • noun the loose board at the bottom or back of a cart.
  • noun that which carries the heck in warping.
  • noun colloq. hell; -- a euphemism. Used commonly in the phrase “What the heck”.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • interjection euphemistic Hell.
  • noun euphemistic Hell.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Alteration of hell.]

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Examples

Comments

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  • Which came first, heck or fuck?

    January 30, 2009

  • What the heck

    March 5, 2013