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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

Heepishly en · ADV

Etymology

From Heepish + -ly: From the Dickens character Uriah Heep, noted for his cloying humility, obsequiousness, and insincerity, the stereotypical yes man.

Meanings

  1. In a cloying, insincerely obsequious manner.
    • They're the ones slavering like Wile E. Coyote over that low-fat commissary quesadilla, or Heepishly dry-washing their red little hands while they pore over next month's studio spread sheet. 1996 August, Jeff MacGregor, “The Big O”, in Los Angeles Magazine, page 57:
    • Why should he take a sort of imbecile and morbid satisfaction, in appearing in the public chronicles of the day, under the depreciating, and, as it appears to us, ‘ Heep’-ishly ‘ umble ’ title of ‘ a small clergyman ?’ 1864 July, “The Adventures of a Lady in Search of a Horse”, in London Society, volume VI, number XXXII, page 5:
    • Rupert did express shame and contrition, however gruffly, ineptly and Heepishly: 'This is the most humble day of my life.' 2012, Piers Brendon, Eminent Elizabethans: Rupert Murdoch, Prince Charles, Margaret Thatcher & Mick Jagger, Random House, page 61:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
more Heepishly Degree=Cmp lexicographic
most Heepishly Degree=Sup lexicographic

wikipedia: Uriah Heep