Word.ws English Dictionary

geek

UK/ɡiːk//ɡik/

geek noun: a carnival performer specializing in bizarre and unappetizing behavior.

Noun (1)

geek (plural geeks)

  1. (dated) A carnival performer specializing in bizarre and unappetizing behavior.
    • I once saw a geek bite the head off a live chicken.
    • You hand in your ticket / And you go watch the geek / Who immediately walks up to you / When he hears you speak / And says, “How does it feel to / be such a freak?”1965, Bob Dylan, “Ballad of a Thin Man”, in Highway 61 Revisited
    Synonyms:
    freak
  2. (colloquial) A person who is intensely interested in a particular field or hobby and often having limited or nonstandard social skills. Often used with an attributive noun.
    • I was a complete computer geek in high school, but I get out a lot more now.
    • Most famous actors are really theater geeks at heart.
  3. (broadly, colloquial) An expert in a technical field, particularly one having to do with computers.
    • My laptop’s locked up again. I need a geek.
    • I challenge these geeks to show a little spirit and produce an 81 tier bonfire by Friday night. It would also be nice to see a few kegs and some spirit around their awaited creation each night. Until then I rest my case.1978 November 14, Jeff Boylan, “Excerpts”, in Bob Wasserman, editor, The Tech, volume 98, Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT, archived from the original on 10 Aug 2014, page 1
    Synonyms:
    freak, hacker, tech guru
  4. (colloquial, uncountable) The subculture of geeks; an esoteric subject of interest that is marginal to the social mainstream; the philosophy, events, and physical artifacts of geeks; geekness.
    • It is totally counter-intuitive. How do these ubernerds get the cute girls? Is it the ultimate triumph of the Bill Gates era, in which geek is the new cool?2005, Sean Dooley, The Big Twitch, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 265
    • "Basically," says [Harry J.] Knowles [founder, 'Ain't It Cool News' website], "it's my job to stay on top of the latest and coolest in geek that's out there, specifically as it relates to the world of film."2007, Kelly Boler, inmag.com
  5. (colloquial) An unfashionable or socially undesirable person.
    • Why do you hang around with them? They’re just geeks.
    • But you can't be any geek off the street, gotta be handy with the steel, if you know what I mean, earn your keep.1988, Young Guns (film)

Verb (1)

geek (third-person singular simple present geeks, present participle geeking, simple past and past participle geeked)

  1. (intransitive) To perform bizarre and unpleasant feats as part of a carnival.
    • Geeking, unsurprisingly, was among the first carnival acts to be outlawed as the 20th century unfurled.1995, Jack Hunter, Inside Teradome, page 23
  2. (colloquial, intransitive) To enthusiastically engage in geek-like or nerdy interests.
    • It was our first time at a Star Trek convention and we had an amazing time wandering around and geeking.
  3. (intransitive, slang, African-American Vernacular) To be nervous or hyperactive due to using crack cocaine.
    • I ain't nothin' but a clucker, your typical glass dick suckin' basehead, geekin' motherfucker1994 August 30, “Stoned Junkee”, in Super Tight, performed by UGK
    • They know I geek a lot / They don't know I keep a Glock2017 January 27, “Slippery”, in Culture, performed by Migos
    1. (broadly, intransitive, slang, African-American Vernacular) To be under the influence of a mood-altering drug.

Noun (2)

geek (plural geeks)

  1. (Australia, colloquial) A look.
    • Have a geek at this.
    • Then he says let′s have a geek at some of the elephant pictures instead.2005, Carmel Bird, The Essential Bird, unnumbered page
    Synonyms:
    butcher’s, gander, dekko

Verb (2)

geek (third-person singular simple present geeks, present participle geeking, simple past and past participle geeked)

  1. (Cornwall) To look; to peep; to stare about intently.
    • This gayte bucca-davy, all'ys geekin' round arter a gook.1891, Joseph Henry Pearce, Esther Pentreath
    • I will geek, I will geek I tell ee; while I have the spirit of a man in me I'll geek.1895, Joseph Thomas, Randigal Rhymes
    Synonyms:
    look

geek meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

geek in Hindi

गीक

geek in Tamil

சமூகப் பழக்கவழக்கங்களில் நயமற்றவன்

geek in Marathi

गीक, गीक करण्यासाठी

geek in Urdu

گیک
More languagesFewer languages
geek in Bengali
গীক, গিক, গীককে
geek in Telugu
గీక్, గీక్కు
geek in Malayalam
ഗീക്ക്, ഗീക്
geek in Kannada
ಗೀಕ್, ಗೀಕ
geek in Punjabi
ਗੀਕ, ਗਿੱਕ
geek in Gujarati
ગીક, ગીકને
geek in Odia
ଗୀକ୍, ଗୀକ
geek in Nepali
गीक, गिक, गीक गर्न
geek in Arabic
غِيك ḡīk, مُهَوَّس muhawwas
geek in Persian
خوره xore, گیک gik

Examples of geek in a sentence

  • i eschew the use of "foo" "bar" and other dill-beak geek dull unimaginative temporary filenames! i find it much better to use names like: ingracl-bbp.goo or dog or ignatz1983 February 16, dd, “Re: Temporary file names”, in net.misc (Usenet), retrieved 21 Sep 2016, message-ID <bnews.yale-com.883>:
  • The community of radio amateurs—trespassing fiddlers on the cutting edge of technological possibilities—prefigured the geek community that was to inhabit Silicon Valley 50 years later.2012, Fiorenza Belussi, Udo Hermann Staber, Managing Networks of Creativity, page 92:
  • You ought to ditch the two geeks you're in the car with now and get in with us.1993, Richard Linklater, Dazed and Confused (motion picture), spoken by Wooderson (Matthew McConaughey):
  • I'm tweakin', I'm geekin', I'm tweakin', I'm geekin'2022 December 2, “I Can't Save You”performed by Metro Boomin and Future:

All 40 example sentences with geek

Synonyms of geek

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of geek

Forms of geek

Noun
pluralgeeks
Verb
third-person singular presentgeeks
present participlegeeking
past participlegeeked
pastgeeked

Past tense of geek: geeked

Origin of geek

Started as carnival slang, likely from the British dialectal term geck (“a fool, dupe, simpleton”) (1510s), apparently from Dutch gek or Low German geck, from an imitative verb found in North Sea Germanic and Scandinavian meaning "to croak, cackle," and also "to mock, cheat" (Dutch gekken, German gecken, Danish gække, Norwegian gakke, Swedish gäcka). The root still survives in the Dutch adjective noun gek (“crazy" or "crazy person”). Compare gink and also Old Norse gikkr (“a pert, rude person; jester; fool”).

Probably related to keek. Compare German gucken (“look”), kieken (“look”) and the dialectal corruption of Dutch keek (“keek”) (from kijk (“look”)), kijken (“to look”). Australian use from Cornish dialect.

Words formed from geek

Phrases with geek

Words that rhyme with geek

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about geek

What does geek mean?
Geek means a carnival performer specializing in bizarre and unappetizing behavior.
What is geek in Hindi?
Geek in Hindi is गीक. See Geek meaning in Hindi.
How do you use geek in a sentence?
i eschew the use of "foo" "bar" and other dill-beak geek dull unimaginative temporary filenames! i find it much better to use names like: ingracl-bbp.goo or dog or ignatz
What part of speech is geek?
Geek can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce geek?
Geek is pronounced /ɡiːk/ (UK).
What is the plural of geek?
The plural of geek is geeks.

Words near geek in the dictionary

  1. geegaws
  2. Geehi
  3. geeing
  4. geeing along
  5. geeing up
  6. geek
  7. geek chic
  8. geek code
  9. geek codes
  10. geek out
  11. geek someone's head up

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: geek (page history and authors); geek (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); geek (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); geek (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); geek (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); geek (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); geek (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); geek (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); geek (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); geek (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); geek (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); geek (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); geek (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-geek.ogg.

Cite this entry: “geek.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/geek. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.