heckle
- to harass (a public speaker, performer, etc.) with impertinent questions, gibes, or the like; badger.
- hackle1(def 7).
Origin of heckle
Synonyms
See more synonyms for on Thesaurus.comExamples from the Web for heckler
Contemporary Examples
But then in 2011 he weaponized comedy, slicing and dicing his political rivals in the same way a comedian deals with a heckler.
Glaser says attacking the audience is off-limits, though she did call a heckler a “c--t” once.
“You can hold your own rally,” the president told the heckler.
He got a huge reaction, which could not have discouraged him from taking on a heckler at a Meg Whitman event a few days later.
There were early reports that the heckler was a Howard Stern staffer.
Historical Examples
I was an uncommon grand hand at the bools mysel, and could throw the ba as far as Robbie King the heckler—ye mind, Tammie?
MerklandMrs. Oliphant
He was a stout man dressed in a drab jacket and had the appearance of a heckler.
In 1654 the spire was destroyed by lightning; the skilful architect Heckler was obliged to rebuild it sixty five feet high.
He was a stout man, dressed in a dark jacket, and had the appearance of a heckler.
The Great North Road: London to YorkCharles G. Harper
Then the bearded attorney, whose fame was secure as a heckler of witnesses, rose dramatically from his chair.
The TemperingCharles Neville Buck
heckle
- to interrupt (a public speaker, performer, etc) by comments, questions, or taunts
- Also: hackle, hatchel (tr) to comb (hemp or flax)
- an instrument for combing flax or hemp
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for heckler
n.
agent noun from heckle (v.); mid-15c., from late 13c., as a surname (Will. le Hekelere). Modern sense of "one from the audience who taunts a public speaker" is from 1885. Fem. form hekelstere is attested from c.1500.
heckle
n.
"flax comb," c.1300, hechel, perhaps from an unrecorded Old English *hecel or a cognate Germanic word (cf. Middle High German hechel, Middle Dutch hekel), from Proto-Germanic *hakila-, from PIE *keg- "hook, tooth" (see hook).
heckle
v.
early 14c., "to comb (flax or hemp) with a heckle;" from heckle (n.) or from related Middle Dutch hekelen. Figurative meaning "to question severely in a bid to uncover weakness" is from late 18c. "Long applied in Scotland to the public questioning of parliamentary candidates" [OED]. Related: Heckled; heckling.