Meanings
comparative more Heepishly · superlative most Heepishly
- In a cloying, insincerely obsequious manner.
Rupert did express shame and contrition, however gruffly, ineptly and Heepishly: 'This is the most humble day of my life.'
2012, Piers Brendon, Eminent Elizabethans: Rupert Murdoch, Prince Charles, Margaret Thatcher & Mick Jagger, Random House, page 612 more examples
Why should he take a sort of imbecile and morbid satisfaction, in appearing in the public chronicles of the day, under the depreciating, and, as it appears to us, ‘ Heep’-ishly ‘ umble ’ title of ‘ a small clergyman ?’
1864 July, “The Adventures of a Lady in Search of a Horse”, in London Society, volume VI, number XXXII, page 5They're the ones slavering like Wile E. Coyote over that low-fat commissary quesadilla, or Heepishly dry-washing their red little hands while they pore over next month's studio spread sheet.
1996 August, Jeff MacGregor, “The Big O”, in Los Angeles Magazine, page 57
Origin
From Heepish + -ly: From the Dickens character Uriah Heep, noted for his cloying humility, obsequiousness, and insincerity, the stereotypical yes man.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
Heepishly. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Heepishly
“Heepishly.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Heepishly. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Heepishly,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Heepishly.
Source: Heepishly on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.