Meanings
- uncountableFawning, cloying servility and obsequiousness.
To a man, the other candidates, imagining the College expected them to glorify Uriah Heepishness, proceeded on the old trite track to decry ambition as one of the devastating forces of humanity.
1887, Compton Reade, editor, Charles Reade, Dramatist, Novelist, Journalist: A Memoir Compiled Chiefly from His Literary Remains, volume 1, Chapman and Hall, page 1222 more examples
One must agree that the formulas they commend to Democratic politicians as a means of distancing themselves from student unrest and so on are crude; and the Uriah Heepishness of Hubert Humphrey's American Bar Association speech (apparently written by Wattenberg) was hardly attractive.
1970 December 7, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., “The City Politic: Scammon and Wattenberg vs. Lubell”, in New York Magazine, page 9Deceit, lying, putting things over on people, bringing people down without their knowing it, stabbing in the back, hitting and running, obsequiousness, underhandedness, stealing, Uriah Heepishness.
2014, Daphne Athas, Entering Ephesus, Open Road Media, page 187
Origin
From Uriah Heepish + -ness: 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
Uriah Heepishness. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Uriah%20Heepishness
“Uriah Heepishness.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Uriah%20Heepishness. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Uriah Heepishness,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Uriah%20Heepishness.
Source: Uriah Heepishness on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.