tee-hee, int. and n.
(ˈtiːˈhiː)
Forms: 4–8 ti-, 4–9 te-, 6–7 ty-, 6– tee-, 7 teh-, tih-, tigh-, 9 tie-; 4– -he, -hee, 6 -heegh, -hei, -hy, 7 -hi, 7–9 -hie: as one word, or as two, or hyphened.
A. int. A representation of the sound of a light laugh, usually derisive. In quots. usually in female use. Cf. he int.2
| c 1386 Chaucer Miller's T. 554 Tehee [v.rr. Te hee; Cambr. Te he; Corpus Tehe; Petw. Ti he], quod she, and clapte the wyndow to. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems lxxv. 22 ‘Tehe!’ quod scho, and gaif ane gaufe. c 1550 Peblis to the Play xxi, Than all the wenschis Te he thai playit. 1588 N. Yonge Mus. Transalpina xli. F j b, When I lament my case thou cryest..ty hy, and no no no. 1654 Gayton Pleas. Notes To Rdr., Monsters where be yee? I'm Hercules, club too, Ti-hee, wi-hee. 1773 Mason Heroic Ep. to Sir W. Chambers 134 And all the Maids of Honour cry Te! He! 1944 A. Huxley Let. 24 Feb. (1969) 500 Tee hee, tee hee, oh sweet delight! |
B. n. A laugh of this kind; a titter, a giggle.
| 1593 G. Harvey Pierce's Super. Wks. (Grosart) II. 273 The Tutt of Gentlemen, the Tee-heegh of Gentlewomen. 1600 E. Blount Hosp. Incur. Fooles 116 As manie tigh⁓hees as euer came out of god Liber or Bacchus his mouth. 1753 A. Murphy Gray's-Inn Jrnl. No. 58 (1756) II. 36 Tehees and Titters in the Women..totally destroy their Beauty. a 1754 Fielding Charac. Men Wks. 1784 IX. 411 The various laughs, titters, tehes, &c. of the fair sex. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. I. ii. v, Our poor young Prince gets his Opera plaudits changed into mocking tehees. 1858 ― Fredk. Gt. vi. vi. (1872) II. 199 Astonishment, flebile ludibrium, tragical tehee from gods and men, will come of the Duel! |
C. attrib. or as adj. tee-hee farm (nonce), a mental hospital; cf. funny farm s.v. funny a. 4.
| 1955 W. Gaddis Recognitions i. v. 172 Everybody knows about Rose, that they've sent her sister Rose back from the tee-hee farm and Esther has to take her in. 1971 Publishers' Weekly 1 Nov. 17/2 This accounts for Newsweek's rather snide coverage and the tee-hee reports in the press. |
Hence teeˈhee v., intr. to utter tehee in laughing; to laugh affectedly or derisively; to titter, giggle; also as tee and hee (nonce). Hence teeˈheeing vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| ? a 1300 Proverb. Verses in Rel. Ant. II. 14 Liþer lok and tuinkling Tihing and tikeling. 1580 Harvey Lett. betw. Spenser & H. Wks. (Grosart) I. 61 The Gentlewoomen..tyhying betweene them selues. 1598 B. Jonson Ev. Man in Hum. i. iii, And the wenches they doe so geere, and ti-he at him. 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 96 They fell to teighing, and now they laugh you to skorne. 1622 Mabbe tr. Aleman's Guzman d'Alf. i. 158 My money..began to laugh and tighie in my purse. 1721 D'Urfey Ariadne ii. i, Oh! how she would Teehee, and simper, and sneer. 1886 Stevenson Kidnapped xiv, What frightened me most of all, the new man tee-hee'd with laughter as he..looked at me. 1904 J. C. Lincoln Cap'n Eri v. 81 ‘That's it, laff!’ almost sobbed Captain Jerry. ‘Set there and tee-hee like a Bedlamite.’ 1928 V. Woolf Orlando iv. 163 He teed and heed intolerably. 1935 ‘G. Orwell’ in New English Weekly 14 Nov. 96/1 Life is full of misery when you believe that the grave really finishes you... Hence the tee-heeing brightness of Punch, hence Barrie and his bluebells, hence H. G. Wells and his Utopiæ infested by nude school-marms. |