heckin'

English

Alternative forms

• heckin
• hecking

Etymology

From heck as a euphemism for hell.

Adjective

heckin' (not comparable)

1. A minced oath used as an intensifier.
   • 2012, Murray L. Peters, Boyle-Breath Breathes, →ISBN, page 196:

     A heckin' kleptomaniac, he was it.

   • 2017 August 16, Wayne Alan Brenner, “Dusty-Danger Dog Day in Austin”, in The Austin Chronicle:

     But how does a doggo, even a heckin' good doggo, warrant such honors?

   • 2017 September 12, “Sunday: Abell Community Street Fair”, in Baltimore City Paper:

     Better yet, when the annual Community Street Fair is on, you can enjoy all that alongside live music (featuring Other Colors, Nina Gala, Sac Au Lait, Hexgirlfriends, and more playing across two stages), food (including a crab feast), drinks, and a heckin' cute children's parade.

   • 2019 March 24, Linda Rodriguez McRobbie, “When bad pets happen to good people”, in Boston Sunday Globe, volume 295, number 83, page K4:

     Now our social media feeds are full of heckin’ good doggos and puppers, cute kittehs and cattos.

   • 2019 December, Stephanie Wilson, “Woo-Woo Woofers”, in Sensi Magazine, page 37:

     Millennials' love for their pups is so intense, it's spawned its own language. Us hoomans chase our heckin floofers, iPhones in hand, snapping pics of their snoots and bleps to share with frens, posting with captions about the goodest boy in the world.

   • 2021, Charlie Ellis, Love Is a Cockapoo: A Dog-tastic Celebration of the World’s Cutest Breed, Summersdale Publishers:

     If your idea of heaven is being surrounded by hecking good boys (and girls) then you've come to the right place.

2. A minced oath used to indicate something undesirable or annoying
   • 2003 October 1, LAM, “Can the default attachment folder be changed in OEx6”, in microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie6_outlookexpress (Usenet):

     And when in the darn heckin heck is this fix?! It's one of the most annoying bugs ms has stupidly made

   • 2017 August 9, Tasnim Odrika, “How to deal with trust issues in a relationship”, in The Daily Star:

     Is your significant other doing you a heckin distress?

Adverb

heckin' (not comparable)

1. A minced oath used as an intensifier.
   • 1996 July 8, Serge Pontejos, “What does RB 67 stand for?”, in rec.photo.equipment.medium-format (Usenet):

     All I heckin' know is that the RB has a mechanical shutter, and the RZ has a^[sic] electronic shutter.

   • 1999 January 22, Panther, “Shimon & Muzzer”, in alt.abuse.recovery (Usenet):

     I'm heckin fine :-)

   • 2006 June 3, Believe!, “What a disgrace”, in alt.gossip.celebrities (Usenet):

     word is, terrence howard declined to perform the song under pressure that blacks would be painted as "pimps" by the performance. how shallow. and then the song heckin' WON!

   • 2017 October 19, Rachel Henry, “Heckin’ bamboozled”, in The Daily Californian‎^[1], archived from the original on 4 May 2023:

     Are memes really more than just words or pictures and have they evolved into a lifestyle? Honestly, I don’t have the answer to that question, so for now, in the words of my favorite Facebook doggos: Heckin’ bamboozled.

Verb

heckin'

1. (present participle only) Horsing around.
   • 1969, The Anglo-Welsh Review - Volumes 18-19, page 180:

     When a zeed me lookin at'm ah made wise that ah was only heckin for fun but I knowed different.

   • 2003, Billy Roche, The Cavalcaders, →ISBN, page 11:

     There I was heckin' around me bedroom like a schoolgirl — one shoe on me.

   • 2004 August 16, Kloka-mo', “The Facts, You Might As Well Go Warmoth, Etc. Anyway”, in alt.guitar.bass (Usenet):

     Well... not really. Just heckin' around.

Anagrams

• Hicken