(usually foll by up) to move (an animal, esp a horse) ahead; urge on
(foll by up) to encourage (someone) to greater effort or activity
First recorded in 1620–30; origin uncertain
1890–95, euphemism for Jesus
First recorded in 1690–1700; origin uncertain
First recorded in 1935–40; spelling of the letter G, abbreviation for grand (in the sense “thousand dollars”)
First recorded in 1940–45; originally abbreviation for ground electronics engineering
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"It was like they wanted to do something, but then really didn't put the effort into it and then said, gee, it didn't work," she told AFP.
From Barron's ● Jan. 31, 2026
“It’s like, well gee, I mean, I don’t even know where to start.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 15, 2025
“And then when the finance company says, ‘Oh, gee, sorry, we can’t actually get the loan on those terms, could you sign some worse terms?’
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 27, 2025
He's pretty in the zone at the moment but there is a little gee up to the crowd.
From BBC ● Feb. 28, 2024
“Oh, gee,” he kept saying, “oh, gee whiz.”
From "Stuart Little" by E.B. White
“I think my patience has come to an end,” Gee said during the recent hearing in her Los Angeles courtroom.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
Gee, thanks—not much different than popping up after flopping on the soccer pitch.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 2026
You can't talk about Desmond Armstrong without mention of Jimmy Banks - or "Gee" as Armstrong affectionately calls him.
From BBC ● Jun. 6, 2026
“It’s getting better,” said Marnie Gee, British Columbia’s film commissioner.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 13, 2026
I tried to imagine what it would be like if I were Ee Gee, the famous editor, in an office full of potted rubber plants and African violets my secretary had to water each morning.
From "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath
"It's about finding out what makes people tick, what motivates them. "People such as Ian Botham were good when you geed them up.
From BBC ● Jun. 30, 2015
"It's great credit to the managers down there who have really responded to the threat of relegation and geed their teams up. It's going to be a grandstand finish."
From BBC ● May 9, 2015
A giant owl mascot geed up the crowd.
From Reuters ● Mar. 24, 2014
He said he doesn't know he does it, and said: 'That's just the way I play and I have to shout to get myself geed up for a game.'
From The Guardian ● Mar. 23, 2011
"They were a fairly happy couple" or "they geed as well as most," as he would have expressed it.
From Together by Herrick, Robert
You saw Walker geeing the fans up and everyone felt together.
From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2021
Eager to work on issues such as attention span, Williams turns guinea pig, submitting to magnetic brain stimulation to achieve better focus, geeing up creativity by means of electrodes over her prefrontal cortex, and more.
From Nature ● Jan. 24, 2017
BST11:49 90 min + 2: On the touchline, Tim Sherwood is geeing his team up.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 8, 2015
The main value of celebrity campaigners is in geeing up the flagging activists who really get out the vote.
From Economist ● Apr. 23, 2015
Asteead o’ geeing t’brass t’ poor, It’s shocking fer to tell, They’ll hardly let em into t’door— I knaw it be mesel.
From Random Rhymes and Rambles by Wright, William Aldis
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
