hiccup
or hic-cough
[hik-uhp, -uh p]
- 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.
Show More
- 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.
Show More
Origin of hiccup
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for hiccups
Contemporary Examples
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
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
Show More
- (intr) to make a hiccup or hiccups
- (tr) to utter with a hiccup or hiccups
Show More
Word Origin
C16: of imitative origin
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for hiccups
n.
a bout of hiccupping, by 1723; see hiccup (n.). This often also was called hiccup or the hiccup.
Show More
hiccup
v.
1580s; see hiccup (n.).
Show More
hiccup
n.
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.
Show More
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
hiccup
- A spasm of the diaphragm causing sudden inhalation interrupted by spasmodic closure of the glottis, producing a characteristic noise.
Show More
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.