tee hee
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English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle English tehee, te he, ti he, alteration of hehe, from Old English he he (“hee hee”).
Interjection
[edit]tee hee
- The sound of a short giggle.
- 1593, Gabriel Harvey, Pierces Supererogation: Or A New Prayse of the Old Asse, London: […] Iohn Wolfe, →OCLC; republished as John Payne Collier, editor, Pierces Supererogation: Or A New Prayse of the Old Asse. A Preparative to Certaine Larger Discourses, Intituled Nashes S. Fame (Miscellaneous Tracts. Temp. Eliz. & Jac. I; no. 8), [London: [s.n.], 1870], →OCLC, page 181:
- She […] hath ſtiled him with an immortall penne, the bawewawe of ſchollars, the tutt of gentlemen, the tee-heegh of gentlewomen, the phy of citizens, the blurt of Courtiers, the poogh of good letters, the faph of good manners, and the whoop-hooe of good boyes in London ſtreetes.
- 1980, Bill Oddie, Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book, page 97:
- Tee hee! Isn't that naughty?
Verb
[edit]tee hee (third-person singular simple present tee hees, present participle tee heeing, simple past and past participle tee heed or tee hee'd)
- To utter tee hee; to make a high-pitched laugh; to titter.
- 1956, Anthony Burgess, Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 70:
- That was more than could be said for those two bastards tee-heeing away over there by the bookshelves.