DictionaryAI

fuck

FUK/fʌk/

Verbfucks, fucking, fucked

Noun pluralfucks

20 meanings of fuck

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  1. 1
    have sexverbvulgartransitive or intransitive
    To have sexual intercourse, especially penetrative sex, with someone.

    She admitted she had wanted to fuck him since college.

    He finally told his wife he had fucked a coworker during the sales conference.

    UsageThe partner is the object: want to fuck someone. Have sex with is the neutral choice.

    Similarscrew, shag, bang

    Note

    Lionel Shriver's The Post-Birthday World (2007) has a woman who "wanted to fuck him more than she had ever wanted to fuck any man."

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • Lionel Shriver wrote The Post-Birthday World, first published in 2007. en.wikipedia.org
    • The novel contains the quoted wording as narration about a woman. en.wiktionary.org
  2. 2
    to hell withverbderogatoryvulgartransitive
    Used to express great displeasure with, or contempt for, someone or something.

    Fuck the committee and their endless pointless meetings.

    Fuck him, he made his choice and left us behind.

    UsageCommon in fuck you. To hell with and screw are milder alternatives.

    Similarscrew, bugger, eff

    Note

    A curse dressed as a command. Fuck the rules has the shape of an imperative but asks no one to do anything. The object can be a person, a group or an abstraction, and the fixed form fuck you is common enough that Cee Lo Green used it as a song title in 2010.

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

  3. 3
    interjectionvulgarcolloquial
    A vulgar exclamation expressing sudden anger, frustration, dismay, pain or shock, or sometimes amazement or delight.

    Fuck, the engine just died in the middle of the highway.

    Fuck, I deleted the wrong file right before the meeting.

    UsageMinced forms such as frick or feck keep the shape with far less force.

    Similarshit, damn, dammit, crap

    Note

    The curse at its barest, standing alone or after oh. Frederic Manning's The Middle Parts of Fortune (1929) has a soldier stumble on a slippery duck-board and mutter it under his breath.

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • Frederic Manning wrote The Middle Parts of Fortune, first published in 1929. cdn.waterstones.com
    • An unnamed soldier stumbles on a duck-board and mutters 'Fuck' under his breath. gutenberg.net.au
  4. 4
    damage badlyverbvulgartransitive
    To ruin or seriously damage something, or to put someone in a very difficult or hopeless situation.

    The power surge fucked the entire sound system.

    Be careful not to fuck the hinge when you force the door open.

    UsageMost often with up: fuck up a chance. Ruin is the neutral word.

    Similarruin, wreck, destroy, break, screw

    Oppositefix, repair

    Note

    Usually it comes with up, as in Colson Whitehead's John Henry Days (2001): he's fucked up his chance. Without the particle it still works for machines and plans: you've fucked the motor; something had fucked the plan. The phrasal form stretches from physical damage to bungled chances.

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • Colson Whitehead wrote John Henry Days, first published in 2001. guides.loc.gov
    • The words 'he's fucked up his chance' occur in John Henry Days; they are narration concerning Moses. en.wiktionary.org
    • The motor example reproduces an attested phrase. en.wiktionary.org
    • The plan example reproduces an attested phrase. en.wiktionary.org
  5. 5
    slightest carenounvulgarcolloquialcountable
    Any concern or consideration at all, even the tiniest amount.

    After years of being ignored, he no longer gave a fuck about their opinions.

    When the complaints rolled in, management did not give a single fuck.

    UsageUsually used in negative expressions: I don't give a fuck. Plural forms also occur: how few fucks I give.

    Similardamn, shit

    Note

    A unit of concern measured out only to be withheld: I don't give a fuck. Mass Effect: Andromeda (2017) has "how few fucks I give," and Raven Smith in 2024 called Oasis "comprehensively out of fucks."

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • Mass Effect: Andromeda was released in 2017. news.ea.com
    • Mass Effect: Andromeda contains the words “how few fucks I give,” spoken by Ryder. en.wiktionary.org
    • Raven Smith described Oasis as “comprehensively out of fucks” in 2024. vogue.co.uk
  6. 6
    sex partnernounvulgarcolloquialcountable
    A person regarded as a sexual partner, especially a casual one.

    She described him dismissively as just another fuck.

    He realized he was only ever a convenient fuck to her.

    Similarlover, hookup, bedmate, paramour

    Note

    Here the word names the person rather than the act, and its usual company shows the attitude: just another fuck, the fuck of the century, a lousy fuck, a great fuck. Even when it admires, it reduces someone to their use in bed. That is why it often turns up in dismissive comparisons between what an encounter meant to each side.

  7. 7
    nounvulgarcolloquialcountable
    An act of sexual intercourse.

    Their first fuck was awkward and over far too quickly.

    He treated every fuck as another conquest to brag about.

    UsageOften in have a fuck. A good fuck can also rate the partner, not the act.

    Similarsex, intercourse, copulation, lovemaking, coitus

    Note

    Alexander Buzo's Tom (1975) has a film of crocodiles "having a fuck."

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

  8. 8
    particleslangvulgar
    Used as a shortened, emphatic substitute for common question phrases such as 'what are you' or 'why are you.'

    The fuck you think you're doing?

    The fuck did he run off so fast for?

    UsageUsually short for what the fuck at the start of a question: The fuck you doing?

    Note

    A clipped question especially at home in African-American Vernacular. Fuck you thought it was? stands for what the fuck did you think it was. The question word and auxiliary drop away, leaving the expletive at the front, and the fuller the fuck works the same way.

  9. 9
    mess withverbvulgarintransitive
    To play with, tinker with, or interfere with something.

    He likes to fuck with the engine on weekends for fun.

    Someone had been fucking with the thermostat all afternoon.

    UsageNeeds with: fuck with the thermostat. Mess with is the clean equivalent.

    Similarmess, toy

    Note

    What is tampered with follows with, never as a direct object: stop fucking with the levels, as a sound engineer yells at a band in Kilian Betlach's This Feels Like a Riot Looks (2006).

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • Kilian Betlach wrote This Feels Like a Riot Looks. roomd2.blogspot.com
    • The words “stop fucking with the levels” occur in the work, attributed to a sound engineer yelling at the musicians. en.wiktionary.org
  10. 10
    screw oververbvulgartransitive
    To cheat, swindle, or otherwise treat someone very unfairly.

    The landlord fucked them out of their entire deposit.

    Shady brokers will fuck clients who trust them too blindly.

    UsageCommon in the passive (got fucked) and as fuck over; screw over is the milder choice.

    Similarscrew

  11. 11
    nasty personnounvulgarcolloquialcountable
    A highly contemptible person.

    The arrogant fuck never apologized for anything in his life.

    Only a heartless fuck would abandon a friend like that.

    UsageOften preceded by an adjective: stupid fuck, sick fuck.

    Similarasshole, dickhead, bastard, blackguard

    Note

    Gershon Legman's Rationale of the Dirty Joke (1968) records a joke built on that slide. A man's offer of "a little fuck" in the sexual sense is thrown back as "Hello, little fuck."

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • Gershon Legman wrote Rationale of the Dirty Joke. en.wikipedia.org
    • The book was first published in 1968. en.wikipedia.org
    • Legman records a joke in which a man's sexual proposition involving "a little fuck" receives the reply "Hello, little fuck." en.wiktionary.org

More uses

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Origin

From Middle English *fukken (not directly recorded), probably Germanic, either from Old English *fuccian or Old Norse *fukka, both traced to Proto-Germanic *fukkōną and perhaps Proto-Indo-European *pewǵ- ('to strike, punch, stab'). Court records from Chester in 1310–11 name a Roger Fuckebythenavele, possibly the earliest sexual use; from about 1500 the word has been in continuous use, displacing older terms like swive. Stories that it began as an acronym, such as 'for unlawful carnal knowledge' or 'fornication under consent of the king', are later inventions. The throwing sense comes from the related word feck.

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 9 facts

  • Middle English *fukken is a reconstructed, unattested form. en.wiktionary.org
  • The proposed Germanic ancestry runs through Old English *fuccian or Old Norse *fukka to Proto-Germanic *fukkōną. en.wiktionary.org
  • A proposed ultimate source is Proto-Indo-European *pewǵ-, with meanings involving punching and stabbing. en.wiktionary.org
  • Roger Fuckebythenavele appears in Chester court records from 1310–11. keele.academia.edu
  • The name possibly contains the earliest known sexual use of the word. en.wikipedia.org
  • The word has been used continuously from about 1500. en.wiktionary.org
  • It displaced older vocabulary including swive. en.wiktionary.org
  • The proposed acronym origins are false etymologies. en.wikipedia.org
  • The throwing sense derives from the corresponding sense of feck. en.wiktionary.org