hiccup
Americannoun
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hiccups
plural
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a quick, involuntary inhalation that follows a spasm of the diaphragm and is suddenly checked by closure of the glottis, producing a short, relatively sharp sound.
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Usually hiccups. the condition of having such spasms.
She got the hiccups just as she began to speak.
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Informal. a minor difficulty, interruption, setback, etc..
a hiccup in the stock market.
verb (used without object)
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to make the sound of a hiccup.
The motor hiccuped as it started.
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to have the hiccups.
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Informal. to experience a temporary decline, setback, interruption, etc..
There was general alarm when the economy hiccuped.
noun
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Technical name: singultus. a spasm of the diaphragm producing a sudden breathing in followed by a closing of the glottis, resulting in a sharp sound
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the state or condition of having such spasms
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informal a minor difficulty or problem
verb
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(intr) to make a hiccup or hiccups
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(tr) to utter with a hiccup or hiccups
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of hiccup
1570–80; alteration of hocket, hickock, equivalent to hic + -ock; akin to Low German hick hiccup; see hocket
Explanation
A hiccup is a jerky, repeated contraction in your diaphragm — it's a sort of involuntary tic you can feel in your throat and chest. People who have hiccups usually make a "hic" sound. Hiccups are a kind of spasm that can be brief or linger frustratingly. One man famously suffered from hiccups for 68 years — for that whole time, not a single folk remedy (doing a headstand, drinking water fast, being scared by someone, and so on) worked to relieve them. The word hiccup is imitative of the sound of hiccups. An Old English word for it was ælfsogoða, "elf heartburn," since hiccups were thought to be caused by elves.
Vocabulary lists containing hiccup
This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for February 5–February 11, 2022
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Vocabulary from Readings 3, Unit 1
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Vocabulary from Readings 3, Unit 1
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
This isn’t its first hiccup in recent months.
From Barron's ● May 28, 2026
"If we do have a hiccup here and there that is also good to learn from."
From BBC ● Apr. 10, 2026
After the hiccup, Riley said the team responded well and it was back to business.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 25, 2026
A short war would only be seen as a temporary hiccup.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 24, 2026
The sound was big, and sharp enough to make me feel like my brain was gonna pop in my head, enough to make my heart hiccup.
From "Ghost" by Jason Reynolds
They’ve run into a few hiccups along the way; when they couldn’t find a Cameroonian restaurant in the city, they hired a private chef.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
And that means the company can little afford continued hiccups with Starship, the successor to SpaceX’s tried and tested Falcon 9 rockets.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
To be sure, the changes are not without hiccups.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 1, 2026
The primary goals of this 13th test launch were to once again demonstrate those redesigns in flight, this time without any hiccups.
From Barron's ● Jul. 25, 2026
“I…they…” Camille hiccups as she struggles for words.
From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller
Aníbal Sánchez finally hiccuped in the fifth, a long solo home run from Max Muncy which splashed down deep in the right-center field bleachers, but he’d delivered as much as the Nationals could have hoped.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 6, 2019
The patient with the longest recorded case, according to Guinness World Records, was Charles Osborne of Anthon, Iowa, who hiccuped for 68 years straight.
From New York Times ● Aug. 15, 2019
Even as Europe, particularly Greece, has struggled, the U.S. market has barely hiccuped.
From US News ● Nov. 6, 2015
But when Wilder's routine hiccuped regularly in the 1960s, he lost that explosive snap in his barbed approach.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 20, 2015
My shoulders were like bouncing all over the place as I hiccuped and snorted—just ugly.
From "When I Was the Greatest" by Jason Reynolds
The 15-time major winner, 50, can be seen co-operating with authorities and then hiccuping while he is being driven away in the back of the police car.
From BBC ● Apr. 2, 2026
The hiccuping ultimately "escalated to…a good deal of hiccup-induced puking," he said.
From Fox News ● Dec. 11, 2021
In the many recent presidential live streams, Bolsonaro’s hiccuping is evident, and he has prefaced some appearances by acknowledging his hiccupping and disrupted speech.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 14, 2021
Others, though, would work on exams with hiccuping computers, at uncomfortable tables with other children or adults making noise nearby.
From Washington Times ● Jan. 27, 2021
Stephen clicked off his light, and Flash seemed to calm a bit, although he was definitely hiccuping.
From "Wishtree" by Katherine Applegate
"The smallest things upset me. The other day I jumped when a woman in the street hiccupped as she walked past me."
From Fox News ● Dec. 5, 2019
He hiccupped in late April, allowing three runs in two innings, but the Nationals had seen what they needed to.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 4, 2019
Celeste hiccupped or burped and it turned into a small retch, but nothing came up.
From The New Yorker ● Apr. 22, 2019
On this breezy late-August night, the police van hiccupped and bounced over the streets’ grooves and potholes.
From New York Times ● Sep. 3, 2012
The engine hiccupped and sputtered out, and all we heard was the wind.
From "Adrift" by Paul Griffin
If you are gargling at the same time that you are hiccupping, you might aspirate water.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 13, 2023
Or a friend might send me another sweet video of her newborn hiccupping.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 30, 2021
“I still write too many of her patented hiccupping, chicken-bone sentences,” said the L.A.-based writer and founder of Boyle Heights’ Libros Schmibros.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 24, 2021
Lincoln was hiccupping a lot in the third trimester.
From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2021
That uncanny laughter tormented Malcolm’s ears; it sounded like a high hiccupping yell of agony.
From "The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage" by Philip Pullman
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.
