cheek

Pluralcheeks

Formscheeks, cheeking, cheeked

1. 1
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The soft skin on either side of the face below the eyes, and the inner wall on each side of the mouth.

   A single tear rolled slowly down her cheek.

   The dentist gently pressed the inside of his cheek to check for swelling.

   Note

   The sense every other one grows from: Old English ċēce meant both "cheek" and "jaw," and its root may trace back to a word for chewing. The cheek is also where feeling shows, so English writes emotion on it. Shakespeare has bad news drain the color from Bassanio's cheek. An older native word for this part of the face, wang, has long been obsolete.

2. 2
   nouncolloquialcountable or uncountable

   Either lower curve of the buttocks, the part that skimpy briefs, swimwear, or very short shorts often leave on show.

   The thong bikini left almost the entire cheek uncovered.

   He slapped his own cheek for laughs as he ran into the pool in tiny trunks.

   Similarbuttock

   Note

   This sense usually comes in the plural and stays informal. It names what a high-cut swimsuit or a short hem leaves showing. Where the face might be understood instead, speakers reach for a compound: butt cheek, the coy nether cheek, or the blunter asscheek and arsecheek. Used alone, cheeks depends on its setting to point below the waist rather than above it.

3. 3
   nouncolloquialfigurativelyuncountable

   Bold or disrespectful behavior; impudence shown toward someone in a brazen way.

   She had the cheek to complain about a meal she ate for free.

   Asking for a raise the day after showing up late takes real cheek.

   Similarnerve, impudence, sass, impertinence, chutzpah

   Oppositerespect, politeness, courtesy

   Note

   Impudence here is something a person has, and usually in a measured amount: some cheek, a lot of cheek, the cheek to do something. It typically answers an outrageous request, as in "You've got some cheek, asking me for money!", and the speaker is indignant rather than admiring. Its nearest neighbors are nerve and brass neck. Sass is the word especially used in the US.

4. 4
   verbtransitive

   To speak or behave impudently toward someone, often by answering back disrespectfully.

   The boy cheeked his grandmother and was sent straight to his room.

   Pupils who cheek the staff usually end up in detention.

   Similarsass

   Note

   The verb takes a direct object, and the person cheeked is usually someone with authority. In George Orwell's Coming Up for Air, boys cheek the carters from behind a hedge. Louise Candlish's narrator, in The Disappearance of Emily Marr (2013), says something mild and still feels as if she had cheeked the headmistress. The verb names the act of answering back, the deed that the noun for impudence describes.

5. 5
   verbtransitive

   To put or keep something tucked between the teeth and the inner wall of the cheek.

   Patients sometimes cheek their pills and spit them out later.

   She cheeked the lozenge while she finished her sentence.

   Oppositeswallow

   Note

   The verb covers both concealment and storage. A patient who cheeks a pill hides it to avoid swallowing it, while a squirrel cheeks nuts to carry them home. Either way, the pocket is the space between the teeth and the inner wall of the face's cheek, and what goes into it is meant to come out later.

6. 6
   nouncountable or uncountable

   Either of the flat side faces of an axehead.

   The smith hammered the cheek of the axehead until it was even.

   A splitting maul has a much thicker cheek than a felling axe.

7. 7
   nouncountable or uncountableplural

   Either of the side branches of a bridle bit, lying alongside the horse's mouth.

   A longer cheek on the bit gives the rider more leverage.

   The trainer checked that the cheek of the bit sat correctly against the lips.

   Note

   A piece of horse tack usually named in the plural, because a bit has a pair of cheeks, one on each side of the mouth, just as the horse's face does. The name moved from the face to the hardware resting against it. Riders also speak of the bridle's cheek strap, the piece behind the horse-handling verb.

8. 8
   nouncountable or uncountable

   One of a pair of matching side pieces, in a machine or in timber or stonework, that form the corresponding sides of an assembly.

   The mason squared the stone cheek of the fireplace opening.

   One cheek of the machine frame had cracked under the load.

   Similarjamb

   Note

   Cheeks of this kind come in matched pairs, so the word usually appears in the plural: the cheeks of a vise, the cheeks of a gun carriage. The image is the face's two sides facing each other across the mouth. The same logic gives the sides of an axehead and the side branches of a bridle bit.

9. 9
   verbtransitive

   In riding, to use the cheek strap of the bridle to bring a horse's head back toward the saddle.

   Riders sometimes cheek a fractious horse to control its head.

   He cheeked the stallion until it stopped tossing its head.

   Note

   A cow-country horseman's verb, tied especially to mounting. The rider grips the bridle, draws the horse's head round toward his left knee, and swings up before the animal can move off. In J. Evetts Haley's Charles Goodnight: Cowman and Plainsman, a rider cheeks the horse and steps into the saddle. It always takes the horse as its object, and it works in the passive too: a horse may need to be cheeked.

10. 10
    nouncountable or uncountable

    The middle section of a molding flask, built to move sideways so that the pattern can be removed from the mold.

    The molder loosened the cheek before drawing out the pattern.

    A three-part flask uses a cheek between the cope and the drag.

    Note

    Foundry flasks are named from top to bottom. The cope sits above, the drag below, and in a three-part flask the cheek sits between them. Its sideways movement is the whole point: shifting it lets the molder draw the pattern out of the packed sand without damaging the mold cavity. A two-part flask has no cheek at all.

11. 11
    nouncountable or uncountable

    A fork-shaped piece of wood that holds the pump's brake by a bolt, letting it pivot and work the upper box of a ship's pump up and down.

    The carpenter cut a new cheek for the ship's pump.

    The brake pivots on a bolt set through the cheek.

    Note

    On shipboard the word turns up in the compound pump-cheek, often in the plural. The brake is the pump handle, and the bolt through the forked cheek is its pivot. That pivot is what lets a sailor work the pump's upper box up and down to raise water. It is the shipwright's specialized case of the general matched side piece.

12. 12
    nouncolloquialcountable or uncountable

    Either of the flat areas, called genae, on the sides of a trilobite's head shield.

    The free cheek of the trilobite had separated along the facial suture.

    Paleontologists measured the cheek on each side of the cephalon.

    Note

    Paleontology's informal, plain-English name for the genae, the flat flanks of a trilobite's head shield. The working distinction is between fixed and free cheeks. The free cheek is the portion that comes away along the facial suture when the animal molts, which is why it so often turns up as a separate fossil piece.

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