melvin

M3E1L1V4I1N1
/ˈmɛlvɪn/

noun

A wedgie performed from in front of the victim.

Less commonScrabble 11

Meanings

melvin1

nounmelvin (plural melvins)

plural melvins

  1. slangA wedgie performed from in front of the victim.

melvin2

nounmelvin (plural melvins)

plural melvins

  1. USderogatoryslangA boring or nerdy person; a dweeb.

    Dad! You can't leave me here! These guys are total Melvins!

    1999, "Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub" (South Park TV episode)

Melvin3

proper noun
  1. A surname from Old French.

    Melville always wrote his name Melvinus in Latin, and he is often called Melvin in English. Hence some have concluded that Melvin, and not Melville, was his proper name. But they are merely different modes of pronouncing the same family appellation.

    1824 Thomas M'Crie, The Life of Andrew Melville, W. Blackwood (1824), page 416
  2. A male given name transferred from the surname.

    And for some reason, they called me Pete. My mother, who probably dug up the name Melvin from some romantic novel about Englishmen drinking tea, cringed at the "Pete".

    1976, Melvin Belli, My Life on Trial: An Autobiography, Morrow, →ISBN, page 21
    1 more example

    On Monday, the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency placed a similar detainer on Melvin Jovel, 18, who on Sunday was the sixth person to be arrested in the case.

    2007 August 21, Kareem Fahim, “Presidential Candidate Blames Killings on Newark Sanctuary Policy”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 30 Aug 2019
  3. A number of places in the United States:
    1. A former unincorporated community in Fresno County, California, now incorporated into Clovis.
    2. A minor city in Osceola County, Iowa.

Origin

melvin · noun

Used in the 1990s American TV show Salute Your Shorts and 1991 film Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey. Earlier origin unknown.

Full word history & related roots →

melvin · noun

From the male given name Melvin.

Full word history & related roots →

Melvin · proper noun

  1. Old Frenchville“settlement”
  2. Latinmala“bad”
  3. EnglishMelvin

Variant of the Scottish surname Melville, from a place name Malleville in Normandy, from Latin mala (“bad”) + Old French ville (“settlement”). * Used to Anglicize Mac Gille Beathain in Scotland and Ó Maoil Mhín in Ireland.

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with melvin

All rhymes →
Cite this entry
APA

melvin. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/melvin

MLA

“melvin.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/melvin. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “melvin,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/melvin.

Source: melvin on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.