heckle
heckle Lexical Profile
heckle Game Scores & Validity
• verb
To interrupt and harass a public speaker, performer, or athlete with impertinent questions, gibes, or loud taunts.
"A small group of protesters began to heckle the senator halfway through his keynote address."
To comb or dress flax or hemp fibers with a spiked tool in order to separate and straighten them for spinning.
"Before the linen threads could be spun, the workers had to thoroughly heckle the dried flax stalks."
• noun
An interrupting or derisive comment, taunt, or question shouted at a public speaker or performer.
"The comedian skillfully turned the audience member's loud heckle into a punchline."
A toothed comb or instrument with long metal pins used for splitting, straightening, and cleaning raw fibers of flax or hemp.
"The weaver drew the bundles of retted flax across the iron pins of the heckle to separate the coarse tow from the fine line."
• Rhymes for heckle
Word Origin & Etymology
From Middle English 'hekelen', originally meaning 'to comb flax or hemp with a spiked instrument' (a dialectal variant of 'hackle'). By the early 19th century in Scotland, the sense of teasing apart fibers with sharp teeth was figuratively extended to subjecting political candidates or public speakers to sharp, aggressive questioning.