hickey
hickey Lexical Profile
hickey Game Scores & Validity
• noun
North American A temporary red or purple mark or bruise left on the skin by kissing or sucking hard, typically on the neck.
"He wore a high-collared shirt to conceal the hickey on his neck."
North American A small gadget, device, or mechanical fitting whose exact name is unknown or forgotten, or a specialized hand tool used by electricians to bend conduit pipe.
"The electrician used a conduit hickey to make a clean ninety-degree bend in the metal pipe."
North American A small pimple, spot, or skin blemish; also, in offset printing, an unintended spot or imperfection on a printed page caused by dust or dried ink on the press plate.
"The press operator stopped the run to clean a stubborn hickey off the printing blanket."
• Rhymes for hickey
Word Origin & Etymology
Originating in early 20th-century American slang, the word initially referred to an unspecified gadget or pimple before shifting in the 1930s to mean a love bite, likely formed as a diminutive of 'hick' or shortened from 'dohickey'.