"cheese it" meaning in English

See cheese it in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Phrase

Audio: en-au-cheese it.ogg [Australia]
Etymology: Unknown, but lexicographer Eric Partridge speculated that it may be a corruption of cease. Originally thieves' cant. In his Vocabulary of the Flash Language, author and former convict James Hardy Vaux (1782-?) defined cheese it as synonymous with stash it and stow it, all meaning to desist or leave off. Etymology templates: {{unk|en}} Unknown, {{m|en|cease}} cease, {{m|en|stash}} stash, {{m|en|stow}} stow Head templates: {{head|en|phrase}} cheese it
  1. (slang, dated, British) An imperative used as a warning to stop, hide, or flee Wikipedia link: thieves' cant Tags: British, dated, slang Synonyms: punch it, desist, heads up Translations (a warning to stop, hide, or flee): vingt-deux ! (22!) (French), attention (French), gaffe (French), dać dyla (Polish), шу́хер (šúxer) (Russian), ата́нда (atánda) (Russian), ата́с (atás) (Russian)

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for cheese it meaning in English (4.6kB)

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          "ref": "1811, Francis Grose, Hewson Clarke, Lexicon Balatronicum",
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          "ref": "1859, George Augustus Henry Sala, “Strollers at Dumbledowndeary”, in Gaslight and Daylight, page 328",
          "text": "[…] he holds earnest parley with some members of the upper gallery who are beguiling the time by pelting us with nut-shells, and broken pipes. Two or three 'hallos!' and 'now thens!' accompanied by a strong recommendation to 'cheese it' (i. e., act of cessation), cause these trifling annoyances to cease.",
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          "ref": "1908, O. Henry, The Voice of the City, page 154",
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          "word": "punch it"
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          "word": "desist"
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          "word": "heads up"
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          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "a warning to stop, hide, or flee",
          "word": "vingt-deux ! (22!)"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "a warning to stop, hide, or flee",
          "word": "attention"
        },
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          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "a warning to stop, hide, or flee",
          "word": "gaffe"
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          "sense": "a warning to stop, hide, or flee",
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      "word": "punch it"
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      "word": "desist"
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      "word": "heads up"
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      "code": "fr",
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      "sense": "a warning to stop, hide, or flee",
      "word": "vingt-deux ! (22!)"
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      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "a warning to stop, hide, or flee",
      "word": "attention"
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      "sense": "a warning to stop, hide, or flee",
      "word": "gaffe"
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      "sense": "a warning to stop, hide, or flee",
      "word": "dać dyla"
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      "sense": "a warning to stop, hide, or flee",
      "word": "шу́хер"
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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-30 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (210104c and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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