heck

«heck» in Mova's school dictionary: an exclamation of annoyance or surprise, a soft stand-in… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

exclamation (heck!); noun (heck: «what the heck», «a heck of a»)

meaning for a pupil

1) (mild) an exclamation of annoyance or surprise, a soft stand-in for «hell». tree →

2) used for emphasis: «a heck of a lot» = very much. tree →

3) «what the heck» = why not, I don't care. tree →

sense in the lessons

A gentle, family-friendly replacement for «hell», common among children, teachers and parents; everyday, all regions, especially US and UK.

examples

• Oh heck, I've spilled my juice. tree →
• What the heck is that noise? tree →
• That's a heck of a lot of homework. tree →
• Heck, why not? Let's go. tree →
• "Flipping heck!" said the teacher when the fire alarm went off. tree →
• It's a heck of a long way to walk. tree →
• Heck, I forgot my lunch again. tree →
• What the heck, I'll have another slice. tree →

note

Trap: mild and usually acceptable, but still a stand-in for «hell». «A heck of a» means very big or very much. Plain meaning: «oh no!», «very».

In the corpora

• "Heck" is a mild word used instead of "hell", as in "What the heck?"

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «heck» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.