hickey
Americannoun
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Slang.
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a pimple.
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a reddish mark left on the skin by a passionate kiss.
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any device or gadget whose name is not known or is momentarily forgotten.
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Electricity. a fitting used to mount a lighting fixture in an outlet box or on a pipe or stud.
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a tool used to bend tubes and pipes.
noun
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informal an object or gadget: used as a name when the correct name is forgotten, etc; doodah
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informal a mark on the skin, esp a lovebite
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printing a spot on a printed sheet caused by an imperfection or a speck on the printing plate
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of hickey
An dating from 1905–10 of obscure origin; senses under hickey def. 1 perhaps a separate word, though the development “device,” from “defective device,” from “defect, blemish, mark” is also possible; cf. doohickey
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:
The new season focuses on Nick and Charlie’s couple stuff: sharing a bed during a class trip to Paris, navigating hickey shame, coming out about their relationship.
From New York Times ● Jul. 29, 2023
A police report describes the mark as a hickey.
From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2018
Jepson has hired a lawyer and looked up that claim to the last infinitesimal hickey; he knows more about the Old Juan than I do.
From Rimrock Jones by Coolidge, Dane
To Von Plaanden's indignant disgust, his military splendor was seriously impaired by a huge "hickey" over his left eye, the memento of a well-aimed rock.
From The Unspeakable Perk by Adams, Samuel Hopkins
If the stitches were big and uneven, he gave two hickeys and a pinch, and one boy got half a dozen, because Johnny said his dirty hands made the thread gray.
From The Quilt that Jack Built; How He Won the Bicycle by Barry, Etheldred B. (Etheldred Breeze)
Hmm, buckteeth; sandy hair, smooth in front, cowlick in back; brown eyes, can’t see in the dark worth a nickel; hickeys on the chin.
From It’s like this, cat by Neville, Emily
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.
