hiccup
or hic-cough
- 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.
- Usually hiccups. the condition of having such spasms: She got the hiccups just as she began to speak.
- Informal. a minor difficulty, interruption, setback, etc.: a hiccup in the stock market.
- to make the sound of a hiccup: The motor hiccuped as it started.
- to have the hiccups.
- Informal. to experience a temporary decline, setback, interruption, etc.: There was general alarm when the economy hiccuped.
Origin of hiccup
Examples from the Web for hiccups
Contemporary Examples of hiccups
Actually, Damascus has been a prominent third party in more recent Londongrad hiccups in the media.
And luckily for Jackson, this upset was the last in a very long line of hiccups that could have spoiled the film.
The Curse of ‘The Hobbit’: Dying Animal, Fires, Actors Quitting, and More Movie UpsetsAnna Klassen
December 12, 2012
“I get hiccups all the time these days,” she says in one 2006 post, written while pregnant with her husband half a world away.
Historical Examples of hiccups
She covered her face with her hands, and her sobs soon passed to hiccups and hysteria.
BoyhoodLeo Tolstoy
The grog's not quite out of my head yet; and I find I've got the hiccups.
Hide and SeekWilkie Collins
I got there, however, and waited for the hiccups to subside.
Back to JulieRichard Wilson
To begin with, he developed a violent attack of hiccups which could not be restrained.
Furze the CruelJohn Trevena
Then Rom suddenly, horribly, uncontrollably, was seized with hiccups.
MarriageH. G. Wells
hiccup
hiccough
- a spasm of the diaphragm producing a sudden breathing in followed by a closing of the glottis, resulting in a sharp soundTechnical name: singultus
- the state or condition of having such spasms
- informal a minor difficulty or problem
- (intr) to make a hiccup or hiccups
- (tr) to utter with a hiccup or hiccups
Word Origin for hiccup
Word Origin and History for hiccups
a bout of hiccupping, by 1723; see hiccup (n.). This often also was called hiccup or the hiccup.
hiccup
1580s; see hiccup (n.).
hiccup
1570s, hickop, earlier hicket, hyckock, "a word meant to imitate the sound produced by the convulsion of the diaphragm" [Abram Smythe Farmer, "Folk-Etymology," London, 1882]. Cf. French hoquet, Danish hikke, etc. Modern spelling first recorded 1788; An Old English word for it was ælfsogoða, so called because hiccups were thought to be caused by elves.
hiccup
- A spasm of the diaphragm causing sudden inhalation interrupted by spasmodic closure of the glottis, producing a characteristic noise.