Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Greek
Greek
,Adj.
Of or pertaining to Greece or the Greeks; Grecian.
Greek calends
. See under
– Greek calends
in the vocabulary. Greek Church
(Eccl. Hist.
), the Eastern Church; that part of Christendom which separated from the Roman or Western Church in the ninth century. It comprises the great bulk of the Christian population of Russia (of which this is the established church), Greece, Moldavia, and Wallachia. The Greek Church is governed by patriarchs and is called also the
– Byzantine Church
. Greek cross
. See Illust. (10) Of
– Cross
. Greek Empire
. See
– Byzantine Empire
. Greek fire
, a combustible composition which burns under water, the constituents of which are supposed to be asphalt, with niter and sulphur.
Ure.
– Greek rose
, the flower campion.
Greek
,Noun.
1.
A native, or one of the people, of Greece; a Grecian; also, the language of Greece.
2.
A swindler; a knave; a cheat.
[Slang]
Without a confederate the . . . game of baccarat does not . . . offer many chances for the
Greek.
Sat. Rev.
3.
Something unintelligible;
as, it was all
. Greek
to me[Colloq.]
Webster 1828 Edition
Greek
GREEK
,Adj.
GREEK
,Noun.
1.
The language of Greece.Greek-fire, a combustible composition, the constituents of which are supposed to be asphalt, with niter and sulphur.
Definition 2024
Greek
Greek
See also: greek
English
Alternative forms
- (abbreviation): Gr.
Noun
Greek (countable and uncountable, plural Greeks)
- (countable) An inhabitant, resident, or a person of descent from Greece.
- (US, countable) A member of a college fraternity or sorority, which are commonly characterised by being named after Greek letters. (See also Greek system)
- "Was Joe a Greek in college?"
- (uncountable) Unintelligible speech or text, such as foreign speech or text, or regarding subjects the listener is not familiar with, such as mathematics or technical jargon; or statements that the listener does not understand or agree with.
- 1951 December, “Which Kind of Life Insurance Policy?”, in Changing Times - The Kiplinger Magazine, volume 5, number 12, page 28:
- ...preferred risk...family maintenance...20-pay life. That's a bare sampling of the merchandise you're asked to pick and choose from. If it sounds like Greek to you, don't worry. It sounds like Greek to most people.
- (uncountable, slang) Anal sex.
- 2001, "(unknown)", ASP: "Julie" of Oral-Land-Oh (on newsgroup alt.sex.prostitution)
- She is absolutely a total GFE, no limits, except no Greek. (Well...I say “no Greek” - - if she is really hot for you, and if she is really turned on in a long session, she might beg for a finger in her anus while you suck her ****, but she is just too tiny and tight for any “real meat” in the backdoor.)
- 2001, "(unknown)", ASP: "Julie" of Oral-Land-Oh (on newsgroup alt.sex.prostitution)
Translations
inhabitant, etc., of Greece
|
|
member of a fraternity or sorority
|
nonsense talk or writing; gibberish
Proper noun
Greek
- The language of the Greek people, spoken in Greece and in Greek communities.
- The writing system used in writing the Greek language.
Usage notes
In writings about the modern world, Greek is used primarily for the modern language currently spoken in Greece, and Ancient Greek will be used for older forms of the language. In the classics and other pre-modern studies, Greek is used for the old forms of the language, and if the modern language is mentioned, it will be called Modern Greek.
Derived terms
Derived terms
Translations
language of the Greek people
|
|
Adjective
Greek (comparative Greeker, superlative Greekest)
- Of or relating to Greece, the Greek people, or the Greek language.
- 1879, Richard Jefferies, The Amateur Poacher, chapterII:
- Orion hit a rabbit once; but though sore wounded it got to the bury, and, struggling in, the arrow caught the side of the hole and was drawn out. […]. Ikey the blacksmith had forged us a spearhead after a sketch from a picture of a Greek warrior; and a rake-handle served as a shaft.
- 1879, Richard Jefferies, The Amateur Poacher, chapterII:
- (US) Of or pertaining to a fraternity or sorority.
- Unintelligible, especially regarding foreign speech or text, or regarding subjects the speaker is not familiar with, such as mathematics or technical jargon.
Synonyms
Translations
of the Greek language, people or country
|
|
pertaining to a fraternity etc
|
unintelligible, especially regarding foreign speech
Derived terms
Terms derived from Greek
Related terms
terms related to Greek
See also
Other headwords of interest
|
- Wiktionary's coverage of Greek terms
- Appendix:Greek Swadesh list for a Swadesh list of basic vocabulary words in Greek
Statistics
greek
greek
See also: Greek
English
Noun
greek (plural greeks)
- Alternative letter-case form of Greek (“nonsense writing or talk; gibberish”).
- Alternative letter-case form of Greek (“anal sex”).
Verb
greek (third-person singular simple present greeks, present participle greeking, simple past and past participle greeked)
- (transitive, computing) To display a placeholder (instead of text), especially to optimize speed in displaying text that would be too small to read.
- 1991, Ronnie Shushan; Don Wright, Desktop Publishing by Design, 2nd edition, Redmond, Wash.: Microsoft Press, OCLC 902239849:
- You can specify the type size below which text will be greeked in the Preferences dialog box. Designers often prefer to use greeked text in rough layouts because it helps the client focus on the design rather than on the words.
- 2002, Deke McClelland, “The Interface”, in Real World Adobe Illustrator 10, Berkeley, Calif.: Peachpit Press, ISBN 978-0-201-77630-0, pages 46–47:
- If text gets smaller than this value, [Adobe] Illustrator shows the text blocks as gray bars, an operation called greeking. Both type size and view size figure into the equation, so that 6-point type greeks at 100-percent view size and 12-point type greeks at 50 percent. Greeking speeds the screen display because gray bars are easier to draw than individual characters.
-
- (transitive, computing) To fill a template with nonsense text (particularly the Lorem ipsum), so that form can be focused on instead of content.
Derived terms
- greeking (noun)