noun General Slang

Eek

/iːk/ · noun · slang

Polari for the face — back-slang of 'ecaf', itself 'face' reversed.

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Definitions

1

Used affectionately for a person, much as English might say 'a friendly face'.

“Lovely to see your eek down here again, dear.”
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2

In Polari, the face. It is a clipped form of 'ecaf', which is simply 'face' spelled backwards — a classic example of Polari folding back-slang into its vocabulary.

“Bona to vada your dolly old eek!”
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3

By extension, one's whole look or appearance, especially once made up. To 'zhoosh the eek' was to do your face.

“Give us a minute to zhoosh the eek before we troll out.”
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Eek In A Sentence

Slap a bit of slap on the eek and we'll make the scene.
His eek dropped the moment the charpering omi walked in.
She had a bona eek and a wicked tongue to match.

Origin & Usage

Polari of mid-20th-century Britain; 'eek' is a shortened 'ecaf', the back-slang reversal of 'face', a derivation set out by Paul Baker in his work on Polari.

Variants ecaf
Tags #polari#lgbtq#british#heritage#vintage#back-slang

People Also Ask

What does eek mean in Polari?

It means the face, and comes from 'ecaf', which is 'face' written backwards.

Why is the Polari word for face spelled backwards?

Polari absorbed back-slang, a coding trick of reversing words, so 'face' became 'ecaf' and then the clipped 'eek'.

What is the famous phrase using eek?

'Bona to vada your dolly old eek' — lovely to see your pretty old face.

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