cheeks

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of cheek.

   The cold wind left his cheeks chapped and pink by noon.

   Tears rolled down her cheeks during the final scene of the film.

   Note

   The plural does more work than the face alone. It also names the paired side pieces of a machine or of timber and stonework, the flat genae on a trilobite's head, and, informally, the lower buttocks, a sense normally used in the plural anyway. Impudence has no plural, so cheeks never means cheek in that sense. The identical spelling in the verb form is where impudence turns up.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of cheek.

   The new apprentice cheeks the foreman and somehow gets away with it.

   Whenever the teacher turns to the board, that boy cheeks her under his breath.

   Note

   A verb built from the impudence noun, and it takes its target as a direct object: she cheeks the teacher. The same -s form also serves two narrower verbs. One comes from horsemanship and means pulling a horse's head back toward the saddle with the bridle's cheek strap. The other means tucking something into the cheek. Only context separates it from the plural noun.

3. 3
   nounslangvulgarcountable

   Vulgar slang for the buttocks; also, sex.

   The wrestler's shorts rode up, baring his cheeks to the front row.

   He clenched his cheeks and squeezed through the narrow gap in the fence.

   Similarbuttocks, backside, butt, bum, behind

   Note

   Coarse slang that slides from body to act. In a phrase like get some cheeks at the club, the word some treats it as a quantity of sex rather than a pair of buttocks, and that construction is the clearest sign of the second meaning. Keep it to casual talk among people who share the register. In mixed or polite company it lands as plainly vulgar.

   He bragged that he'd get some cheeks before the night was over.

   She rolled her eyes when he said he was only out looking for cheeks.

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