Meaning
3 sensesThe long shining feathers on a cock's neck.
A feather ornament in the full-dress bonnets of Highland regiments.
An rude interruption during a show, especially a comedy performance
The stand-up dealt well with the heckles from the crowd, replying with raucous banter to raise plenty of laughs.
- a comb for separating flax fibers
Examples
7 sentencesThis is my first time doing stand up. I hope the crowd doesn't heckle me.
Don't heckle comics.
Don't heckle comedians.
Heckle the police.
Don't heckle during the show. It's a monologue, not a dialogue.
Origin
Transferred usage of Middle English hekelen (“to comb flax or hemp with a heckle”), from hTransferred usage of Middle English hekelen (“to comb flax or hemp with a heckle”), from hekele (“a comb for flax or hemp”), from Middle Dutch hekelen (“to prickle, irritate”), from Proto-West Germanic *hakilōn, from Proto-Germanic *hakilōną, related to *hakô (“hook”). Doublet of hatchel. Related to hackle.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.