greek

plural greeks

1. Alternative letter-case form of Greek (“nonsense writing or talk; gibberish”).
2. Alternative letter-case form of Greek (“anal sex”).

present singular third person greeks · participle present greeking · participle past greeked · past greeked

1. transitivecomputingTo display a placeholder (instead of text), especially to optimize speed in displaying text that would be too small to read.

   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.

   1991, Ronnie Shushan, Don Wright, Desktop Publishing by Design, 2nd edition, Redmond, Wash.: Microsoft Press, →OCLC

   1 more example

   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.

   2002, Deke McClelland, “The Interface”, in Real World Adobe Illustrator 10, Berkeley, Calif.: Peachpit Press, →ISBN, pages 46–47

2. transitivecomputingTo fill a template with nonsense text (particularly the Lorem ipsum), so that form can be focused on instead of content.
3. transitiveTo obscure a corporate logo that has not been permitted for use in a production.

comparative Greeker · superlative Greekest · alternative abbreviation Gr. · alternative obsolete Greeke

1. Of or relating to Greece, its people, its language, or its culture.

   The ancient Greek physician Hippocrates promoted wine for various purposes, including reducing fevers and dressing wounds.

   2022 January 22, Jonathan Reiner, “If you think that glass of wine is good for you, it’s time to reconsider”, in CNN, archived from the original on 12 Aug 2025

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   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, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter II, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC

   Sanskrit, Greek, Slavonic, Germanic, and Celtic names were all of this type, but there are also shorter names formed from the compound ones; […].

   1945, E[lizabeth] G[idley] Withycombe, “Introduction”, in The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page xii

2. colloquialfigurativelySynonym of incomprehensible, used for foreign speech or text, technical jargon, or advanced subjects.

   Synonyms: incomprehensible, used for foreign speech or text, technical jargon, or advanced subjects, Grecian, Greco-, Hellenic, Helleno-

3. USnot comparableOf or relating to collegiate fraternities, sororities, or (uncommon) honor societies.

   “Every single person is going to have a different experience watching this film,” she said when I asked about possibly labeling the Greek system as “toxic”.

   2023 May 24, Adrian Horton, “‘Competitive femininity’: inside the wild and secretive world of sororities”, in The Guardian, →ISSN, archived from the original on 10 Jun 2023

plural Greeks · alternative abbreviation Gr. · alternative obsolete Greeke

1. countableuncountableThe language spoken by people of Greece, particularly, depending on context, Ancient Greek or Modern Greek.

   It’s one that I would personally endorse: My individual circumstances were such that, by the age of 12, I could speak German, Greek and English, so languages became my passion and my hobby.

   2021 April 25, John Malathronas, “Which languages are easiest – and most difficult – for native English speakers to learn?”, in CNN, archived from the original on 22 Mar 2022

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   For it is vain and foolish to talk of knowing Greek, since in our ignorance we should be at the bottom of any class of schoolboys, since we do not know how the words sounded, or where precisely we ought to laugh, or how the actors acted, and between this foreign people and ourselves there is not only difference of race and tongue but a tremendous breach of tradition. All the more strange, then, is it that we should wish to know Greek, try to know Greek, feel for ever drawn back to Greek, and be for ever making up some notion of the meaning of Greek, though from what incongruous odds and ends, with what slight resemblance to the real meaning of Greek, who shall say?

   1925, Virginia Woolf, “On Not Knowing Greek”, in [Leonard Woolf], editor, Collected Essays, volume I, London: Hogarth Press, published 1966, →OCLC, page 1

2. countableuncountableThe written form of these languages.
3. countableuncountableA surname.

plural Greeks · alternative abbreviation Gr. · alternative obsolete Greeke

1. countableA person from Greece or of Greek descent.

   The Greeks believed the sun went round the earth.

2. uncountableGreek cuisine, traditional or representative Greek food.
3. colloquialfigurativelyuncountableSynonym of gibberish, used for foreign speech or text, technical jargon, or advanced subjects.

   "I don't hear one word in ten that they say," continued Mrs. Abingdon; "it's Greek to me. However, ..."

   1821, Mary Jane Mackenzie, Geraldine, page 8

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   "It's all Greek to me," said my companion at the outset, but as the warrior continued, his fears arose within him; it might be sentence of death—what did he know what it might not be?

   1859, Kinahan Cornwallis, Two Journeys to Japan, 1856–7, volume 2, page 246

   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.

   1951 December, “Which Kind of Life Insurance Policy?”, in Changing Times – The Kiplinger Magazine, volume 5, number 12, page 28

   Synonyms: gibberish, used for foreign speech or text, technical jargon, or advanced subjects

4. colloquialfigurativelymetonymicallyuncountableSynonym of lorem ipsum, dummy placeholder text used in greeking.

   Synonyms: lorem ipsum, dummy placeholder text used in greeking

5. UScolloquialcountablemetonymicallyA member of a collegiate fraternity or sorority.

   Was Joe a Greek in college?

6. archaiccountableslangA cunning rogue.

   When Greek meets Greek neither is wont to get much satisfaction.

   1897, Stanley John Weyman, “The Deanery Ball”, in For the Cause

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   The wind-up is, that the father becomes bankrupt; the wife and daughters town-traders; the sons Greeks, Fancy-swells, Conveyancers (pickpockets), or Cracksmen (house breakers), and the New Drop is the last drop they ever take.

   1822, A Morning in Cork-Street: or, Raising the wind, page 102

7. archaiccountableslangA merry fellow.
8. slanguncountableAnal sex.

   “What's within reason?” “Hand-job, blow-job, full sex — straight, full service. Greek, maybe, if you're not too big. Golden shower, if you like, but not reverse. No hardsports. And absolutely nothing without.”

   2012, Maxim Jakubowski, The Best British Crime Omnibus

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   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 clit, but she is just too tiny and tight for any “real meat” in the backdoor.)

   2001, "ASP: 'Julie' of Oral-Land-Oh", alt.sex.prostitution, Usenet

   Synonyms: anal sex

9. countablein pluraluncountablebusinessOne of the Greeks, measures of derivative price sensitivity.

present singular third person Greeks · participle present Greeking · participle past Greeked · past Greeked · alternative abbreviation Gr. · alternative obsolete Greeke

1. obsoleteTo cheat at cards.

   A discovery of Greeking at Brighton, has made considerable noise this month in the sporting world.

   1817, Sporting Magazine, number 50, page 284

2. uncommonAlternative letter-case form of greek.