Cheek sb.

Forms: 1 céce, céace, (ceike, ceke, ceoce), 3 cheoke, 3–7 chek(e, 4 chooke, choke, cheake, (chyke, cheche), 4–7 cheeke, 5 chik(e, (6 Sc. cheik), 6– cheek. [OE. (Anglian) céce, (WS.) céace (from ceǽce, cǽce) fem.:—WGer. type *kâkâ; whence also MDu. câke, Du. kaak, MLG. and mod.LG. kâke, kêke. It is doubtful whether the late WSax. instance of ceoke is other than an error: if it were really céoce, it might agree with Frisian forms which appear to point to an OTeut. type *keukôn-, beside the *kǣkôn- implied by WGer. *kâkâ. No related forms are known outside Teut.

  The ME. variant choke, chook, may go with ceoke; but see CHOKE sb.²]

  I.  In the animal body.

  † 1.  The jaw, jaw-bone; later called ‘cheek-bone.’ Obs.

c. 825.  Vesp. Psalter xxxi(i). 9. Cecan heara ʓeteh.

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 157. Mandibula, ceacban, vel ceacan, vel cinban.

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 70. Þe two cheoken beoð þe two grinstones. Þe tunge is þe cleppe.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Monkes T., 48. And hadde no wepen but an asses cheeke.

  † b.  pl. (also sing.) The chaps, chops or fauces; the swallow. Obs.

c. 1000.  Sax. Leechd., II. 48. Wiþ þara ceacna ʓeswelle.

c. 1200.  Trin. Coll. Hom., 73. Cleued be mi tunge to mine cheken [adhereat lingua mea faucibus meis, etc.].

1382.  Wyclif, Ecclus. xxxi. 72. Ne opene thou out thi cheeke rathere.

c. 1450.  Metr. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 626. Cheke, faux.

  † c.  Used like beard, teeth, etc., in defiance, cursing. Maugre thy (his, etc.) chekes: see MAUGRE.

1362.  Langl., P. Pl., A. IV. 37. Hou þat Wrong … Rauischede Rose Reynaldes lemmon, And Mergrete of hire Maydenhod maugre hire chekes. Ibid. (1377), B. VI. 158. We wil haue owre wille, maugre þi chekes.

a. 1553.  Udall, Roister Doister, V. iv. Roister Doisters champion, I shrewe his best cheeke.

  2.  The fleshy lateral wall of the mouth; the side of the face below the eye, in man or beast.

c. 950.  Lindisf. Gosp., Matt. v. 39. Gif hua ðec slaes in suiðra ceica ðin.

c. 975.  Rushw. G., ibid. On ðæt swiðran ceke [Ags. G. wenge, Hatton G. wænge].

c. 1000.  Vocab., in Wr.-Wülcker, 290/25. Male ceocan.

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 106. Me to-beot his cheoken.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 24533. Bath frunt and chek [v.r. cheke], Muth and nese, and eien eke.

c. 1380.  Sir Ferumb., 615. Ys chyke þat swerd þo cam so neȝ [orig. draft, His cheche þat swerd cam ful neyȝ].

1486.  Bk. St. Albans, C vj b. When thou seeth thy hauke vppon his mouth and his chekis blobbed.

1535.  Coverdale, Deut. xxxiv. 7. His … chekes were not fallen.

a. 1550.  Christis Kirke Gr., viii. Throw baith the cheikis.

1615.  Sir J. Harington, Epigr., No. 19. When others kisse with lip, you giue the cheeke.

1667.  Milton, P. L., I. 602. Care Sat on his faded cheek.

1712.  Addison, Spect., No. 317, ¶ 45. Mr. Nisby dined with me. First Course Marrow-bones, Second, Ox-cheek.

1748.  Smollett, Rod. Rand., liv. I signified my contempt of him, by thrusting my tongue in my cheek.

1821.  Clare, Vill. Minstr., I. 185. The tears stole silent down her cheeks.

1831.  R. Knox, Cloquet’s Anat., 599. The Cheeks … form the lateral walls of the mouth. Externally they have no precise limits.

  β.  in form choke, chook.

c. 1330.  R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 1820. Þer nekkes, chynnes, chekes [v.r. chokes].

1387.  Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), VII. 239. Chookes and lippes i-schaue.

a. 1400.  in Leg. Rood (1871), 218. Goddis sone a mayden soke, Milk ran by þe childys choke.

  3.  fig. of the sea, the heavens, night, etc., personified. (Formerly in sense ‘chops’ (from 1 b.), as in quot. 1432.)

1432–50.  trans. Higden (Rolls), I. 49. The chekes and begynnenges [fauces originales] of those armes of the see.

1593.  Shaks., Rich. II., III. iii. 56.

1813.  Byron, Giaour, 12. Ocean’s cheek Reflects the tints of many a peak.

1827.  Pollok, Course T., I. Every flower of fairest cheek.

  4.  colloq. a. Insolence in speaking to any one; ‘jaw.’ Phr. To give cheek: = CHEEK v.

1840.  E. C. Bailey, in Haileybury Observer, II. 53.

1840.  Marryat, Poor Jack, xxii. The man, who was a sulky saucy sort of chap … gives cheek.

1848.  J. Mitchell, Jail Jrnl., 20 July. I once asked … what fault a man had committed who was flogged … ‘For giving cheek, sir.’

1884.  G. Moore, Mummer’s Wife (1887), 133. If he gives me any of his cheek I’ll knock him down.

  b.  Cool confidence, effrontery, impudence. To have the cheek (to do anything): to have the ‘face,’ audacity or effrontery.

1852.  Dickens, Bleak Ho., liv. (D.). On account of his having so much cheek.

1860.  Reade, Cloister & H., xlviii. (D.). She told him … she wondered at his cheek.

1870.  ‘Wat. Bradwood’ The O. V. H., 264. He can’t have the cheek to ask for more.

1885.  Col. Harcourt, Sp. Ho. Comm., 12 May. It shows a considerable amount of cheek to bring forward this matter.

  5.  Cheek by jowl; earlier † cheek by cheek. (In 6–7 cheek(e to jowl, by chole, jole, joll, gig(g by geoul, jowl, 7–8 jig(g by jowl, 9 cheek by chowl, for chowl, and jowl, Sc. cheek-for-chow, dial. jig-by-jow.) Side by side; in the closest intimacy.

c. 1330.  R. Brunne, Chron. Langt. (1810), 223. Vmwhile cheke bi cheke.

c. 1530.  Ld. Berners, Arth. Lyt. Bryt. (1814), 352. Then they … rode togyther cheke by cheke.

1577.  Hanmer, Anc. Eccl. Hist. (1619), 164. Cheek by iowle with the Emperour.

1598.  Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. i. (1641), 4/2. Mercie and Justice, marching cheek by joule.

1606.  G. W[oodcocke], Hist Ivstine, 101 a. Agathocles sitting cheeke by cheeke with the king.

c. 1645.  Howell, Lett., IV. xxxvi. In their Churches … the Laundresse gig by geoul with her Lady.

1719.  D’Urfey, Pills, V. 293. He with his Master, jig by jowl, Unto old Gillian hy’d.

a. 1734.  North, Ld. Keeper Guilford (1742), 142. Every one in his Turn … came up Cheek by Joul, and talk’d with my Lord Judge.

1786.  Burns, Earnest Cry & Prayer, viii. An’ cheek-for-chow, a chuffie Vintner.

1822.  Scott, Nigel, xxvii. To stand cheek-for-chowl confronting us.

1861.  Miss Braddon, Trail Serpent, II. i. Destitution … must be content often … to jog cheek by jowl with crime.

  6.  To one’s own cheek (vulgar): to oneself, for one’s own private use.

1851.  Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 123/2 (Hoppe). Such a thing as a moor bird … which can be eat up to a man’s own cheek.

1861.  Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxf., vi. (1870), 57/2. Then I shall have it all to my own cheek.

1862.  Mrs. H. Wood, Mrs. Hallib., II. ix. 194. If I spent my earnings … or let Tim keep his to his own cheek.

1874.  Slang Dict., Cheek, share or portion; ‘where’s my cheek?’ where is my allowance? ‘All to his own cheek,’ all to himself.

  † 7.  Cheeks and ears: ‘a fantastic name for a kind of head-dress of temporary fashion’ (Nares).

1605.  Lond. Prodigal, IV. iii. F 2 (N.). Frau. O then thou canst tell how to helpe mee to cheekes and eares?… Ciu. I, I Kester, tis such as they weare a their heads.

  II.  Transferred and technical. Mostly in plural.

  8.  gen. Side. (Cf. 3.)

1555.  Fardle Facions, Pref. A ij b. So ioynyng in confederacie, [they] … framed vp cotages, one by anothers chieque, [etc.].

1886.  Stevenson, Kidnapped, xxvi. 271–2. Are ye to eat your meat by the cheeks of a red fire…?

  9.  Each of the side-posts or uprights of a door, gate, etc. Also the side-pieces of a window-frame.

1375.  Barbour, Bruce, X. 229. Set evinly Betuix the chekys of the ȝet.

1486.  Rec. Nottingham, III. 358. For a cheke to þe same wyndowe iiijd.

1535.  Coverdale, Amos ix. 1. Smyte the dore cheke.

1577.  B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., II. (1586), 107. Meete for the cheekes and postes of Gates.

1601.  Holland, Pliny (1634), II. 571. The sils, lintels, and cheeks of his dores.

1789.  W. Gilpin, Observ. Picturesque Beauty, I. 125. The river makes a noble rush, precipitating itself near fifty feet, between the two cheeks of the rock, which support the bridge.

1818.  Scott, Hrt. Midl., x. To name sic a word at my door-cheek!

  10.  The side-pieces of a pike-head forming a kind of socket by which it was secured to the staff; also of a hammer, pick, or other tool with a similar head. † b. Also, the posture of the pike when cheeked: see CHEEK v. 2.

1598.  Barret, Theor. Warres, III. i. 36. A good Pike … well and strongly headed, with the cheekes three foote long.

1633.  T. Stafford, Pac. Hib. (1821), iii. 44. Every one trayling his Pike, and holding the cheeke thereof in his hand, ready to push.

1635.  Barriffe, Mil. Discip., ii. (1643), 9. From Comport, Cheeke, or Traile, the Pikeman may at the discretion of the Commander, charge either to the Front, Reare, or Flanks, as shall be necessary or thought expedient.

1881.  Raymond, Mining Gloss., 99. Cheeks, extensions of the sides of the eye of a hammer or pick.

  11.  Harness. a. Of a bridle: The strap that passes down each side of the horse’s head, from the head-stall to the nose-band; the cheek-strap. b. Of a bit: The ring or other part at each end of the bit proper. To put a horse up to the cheek: to put his reins on to the first or highest rings of the curb, so as to have the lightest leverage on the mouth.

1617.  Markham, Caval., II. 48. The bytt doth consist not of one entyre peece, but of many, as of mouth, cheeke, curbe, and such like. Ibid., 68. The cheeke … I take to be but from the neathermost part of the eye of the bytt downeward, to the vtmost length of the bytt.

1801.  W. Felton, Carriages, II. 146. The Bit, which is of iron, is placed in the horse’s mouth…. They are of different forms, some are made to be sharper in the mouth, and for a stronger purchase than others, and are called the straight cheek, the duke, and Portsmouth bit. Ibid. The bit is buckled in the top loop to the cheek of the bridle.

1851.  ‘Nimrod,’ The Road, 16. Put … the stallion up to the cheek.

1859.  F. A. Griffiths, Artil. Man. (1862), 105 (plate).

Mod.  Ostler asks ‘Do you drive in the cheek, the middle-bar, or the curb?’

  12.  Mining. The sides or walls of a vein.

1813.  Bakewell, Introd. Geol. (1815), 290. The walls or cheeks of the vein are of two different kinds of stone.

1881.  in Raymond, Mining Gloss.

  13.  Naut., in various senses:

  a.  the projections on each side of the mast on which the tressle-trees rest; b. the shell or outside wooden part of a block; c. pieces of timber upon the ship’s bows to secure the beak-head or cut-water; d. the ‘ears’ of a ship’s pump; e. the circular pieces on the aft-side of the carrick-bits.

1627.  Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., iii. At the top of the fore Mast and maine Mast are spliced cheeks, or thicke clamps of wood.

1644.  Sir H. Manwaring, Seaman’s Dict., The sides of the blockes are called the cheekes.

1681.  R. Knox, Hist. Ceylon, 118. A Tree to make Cheeks for the Main-mast.

1704.  J. Harris, Lex. Techn., s.v., The knees also which fasten the Beak-head to the Bows of a Ship are called Cheeks; and so are the sides of any Block.

1727.  A. Hamilton, New Acc. E. Ind., I. xxii. 270. A Piece of Wood about 15 Foot high, with a Notch cut in the upper End, like the Cheeks of a Ship’s Pump.

1769.  Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), Cheville de potence de pompe, a … bolt which fastens the brake to the cheeks or ears of the pump.

1772–84.  Cook, Voy. (1790), V. 1751. The carpenter discovered the cheeks of the foremast to be rotten.

1787.  in Nicolas, Disp. Nelson (ed. 2), I. 207. The cheeks of her [the Ship Pegasus] head have been taken off.

1794.  Rigging & Seamanship, I. 150. Cheeks of a block. The two sides of the shell.

c. 1850.  Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 106. Cheeks are also the circular pieces on the aft side of the carrick-bitts.

  14.  Mech., etc. A general name for those parts of machines that resemble cheeks in being arranged in lateral pairs: e.g.

  The shears or bed-bars of a lathe on which the puppet slides; the side-pieces or brackets of any piece of ordnance; the side-pieces of a grate or stove; the jaws of a vice; the standards or supports in rolling-mills, printing presses, etc.; the solid parts of timber on the sides of a mortise; the sides of a pillow-block that hold the boxing; the interior faces of an embrasure; an indent cut in a wall into which a pipe or the like is fitted; in Founding, one of the parts of a flask consisting of more than two parts.

1650.  R. Elton, Art Mil., Suppl. (1668), 248. For the Traverses … that joyn these Planks together, the foremost … must enter one half of a Diameter in length into either of the Cheeks or Planks.

1677.  Moxon, Mech. Exerc. (1703), 170. These Puppets … slide in the Grove between the two Cheeks.

1704.  J. Harris, Lex. Techn., Trunnions of a Peece of Ordnance, are those Nobs or Bunches of the Guns Metal which bear her up upon the Cheeks of the Carriages.

1769.  Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), Flasques, the cheeks or sides of a gun-carriage.

1801.  Ann. Reg., 1799 Chron. 400. The back and bottom of fire-grates, combined with cheeks.

1819.  Pantologia, III. s.v., The cheeks of a mortar, or the brackets, in artillery … are fixed to the bed by four bolts.

1830.  E. Campbell, Dict. Mil. Sc., 38. Cheeks of an embrazure, the interior Faces or Sides of an Embrazure.

1881.  C. A. Edwards, Organ, 50. A thick piece of pine or mahogany glued firmly on the front and back … named the sound-board cheeks.

1881.  Mechanic, § 1224. The sides or ‘cheeks’ of the grate.

  III.  15. Comb., chiefly attrib., as cheek-band, -blade, -feather, -flap, -piece, -rose, -strap, -varnish; cheek-burning, -distending adjs.; † cheek-ball, the rounded part of the cheek; cheek-blade, a jaw-blade; cheek-block, a block of which one side is formed by a cheek-piece fastened to an object that forms the other side; cheek-knee = CHEEK 13 c; † cheek-lap, jaw, jaw-bone; cheek-pouch, a pouch-like enlargement of the cheek, esp. in certain species of monkey; hence cheek-pouched adj. Also CHEEK-BONE, -TOOTH.

1583.  J. Higins, trans. Junius’ Nomenclator, 28. Gena, mala, the *cheeke balle.

1607.  Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 502. The powder of unwashed wool … doth very effectually purge the eye-lids or cheek-bals.

1535.  Coverdale, Tob. vi. 3. Take him by the *cheke blade and drawe him to the.

1794.  Rigging & Seamanship, I. 30. On each side athwartships are *cheek-blocks. Ibid., 155. Cheek-blocks, or half-blocks, are made of elm plank.

1784.  Cowper, Task, IV. 488. The *cheek-distending oath.

1867.  F. Francis, Angling, xiii. (1880), 478. *Cheek feathers—that is, short feathers.

1805.  Southey, Madoc in Azt., xvi. Slivering downward, left The *cheek-flap dangling.

1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Cheeks or *cheek-knees.

1382.  Wyclif, Lev. xi. 29. A cokedril … hauynge the nether *cheke lap vnmeuable, and meuynge the ouere. Ibid., Judg. xv. 15. A foundun cheek boon, that is, the cheek lap of an asse.

1758.  Phil. Trans., L. 621. A helmet on his head … and *cheek-pieces fastened under his chin.

1864.  Ld. Derby, Iliad, IV. 166. The iv’ry cheek-piece of a warrior’s steed.

1834.  McMurtrie, Cuvier’s Anim. Kingd., 47. The Monkeys of America have … the tail long; no *cheek-pouches.

1849.  Sk. Nat. Hist., Mammalia, IV. 20. The true marmots [have] no cheek-pouches.

1879.  Wright, Anim. Life, 30. *Cheek-pouched Monkeys.

1603.  Shaks., Meas. for M., I. iv. 16. Haile Virgin … as those *cheeke-Roses Proclaime you are no lesse.

1598.  Florio, Purpurino … a liuely redde colour women vse for painting, called *cheeke-varnish.