Uriah Heepish en · ADJ
Etymology
From Uriah Heep + -ish: From the Dickens character Uriah Heep, noted for his cloying humility, obsequiousness, and insincerity, the stereotypical yes man.
Meanings
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Exhibiting cloying, insincere obsequiousness.
Until now the friar had appeared to be a scheming, cowering, Uriah Heepish type, ashamed of his controversial sermon, terrified of its implications for his future, ready to be used anew by the papal legates, just as he had been used by the Pigeon League.
2005, James Reston, Jr., Galileo: A Life (Beard Books, 2005) p. 152In the unlikely event that he read off-the-cuff, he couldn't have known that the clumsy schoolboy Widmerpool, at first so Uriah Heepish in his creepy false humility, "the embodiment of thankless labour and unsatisfied ambition," would turn out to be a monstrous and dangerous hypocrite.
2001, Lynne Sharon Schwartz, Face to Face: A Reader in the World, Beacon Press, page 18:Flunky opens the door, his face wreathed in a Uriah-Heepish smile of servility.
1897 August, Paul E. Jenks, “Coasting the Mediterranean Awheel”, in Outing, volume XXX, number 5, page 462:I am never going to adopt the Uriah Heepish attitude toward trustees that characterized Mrs. Lippett's manners.
1915, Jean Webster, Dear Enemy, Grosset & Dunlap, page 77:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| most Uriah Heepish | Degree=Sup | lexicographic | |
| more Uriah Heepish | Degree=Cmp | lexicographic |