Word.ws English Dictionary

gleek

/ɡliːk/UK/ɡliːk/

gleek noun: a once-popular game of cards played by three people.

Noun (1)

gleek (countable and uncountable, plural gleeks)

  1. (uncountable) A once-popular game of cards played by three people.
    • Lady Loadstone: Laugh, and keep company, at gleek or crimp. / Mistress Polish: Your ladyship says right, crimp sure will cure her.1640, Ben Jonson, The Magnetick Lady, or, Hvmors Reconcil'd, act 2, scene 4
  2. (countable) Three of the same cards held in one hand; three of a kind.

Noun (2)

gleek (plural gleeks)

  1. A jest or scoff; trick or deception.
    • Where's the Baſtards braues, and Charles his glikes: What all amort?1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    Synonyms:
    deception, jest, scoff, trick
  2. An enticing glance or look.
    • A pretty gleek coming from Pallas' eye:1623 (first performance), John Fletcher, William Rowley, “The Maid in the Mill”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647...
  3. (informal) A stream of saliva from a person's mouth.

Verb

gleek (third-person singular simple present gleeks, present participle gleeking, simple past and past participle gleeked)

  1. (obsolete, transitive) To ridicule, or mock; to make sport of.
    • I have seen you gleeking and / galling at this gentleman twice or thrice.1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
    Synonyms:
    gibe, mock, scoff at, sneer at
  2. (intransitive, obsolete) To jest.
    • […] that ſome honeſt neighbours will not make them friends. Nay, I can gleeke vpon occaſion.c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First...
  3. (intransitive, obsolete) To pass time frivolously.
  4. (informal) To discharge a long, thin stream of liquid (including saliva) through the teeth or from under the tongue, sometimes by pressing the tongue against the salivary glands.
    • i just push the tip of my tongue against the roof of my mouth and saliva squirts out in a groovy little arc. i think you'd really have to see it to know what i am talking about. but you can gleek best right after chewing big red gum.1999 October 18, Gem, “what can you wiggle?”, in alt.music.soulcoughing (Usenet)
    • My buddy can gleek (thats what he called it too) but he used highly pressured spit forced out between two teeth with his tounge to do it.1999 November 15, THAT antix GUY, “the weird personal info”, in alt.rave (Usenet)

Noun (3)

gleek (plural gleeks)

  1. (slang) A geek who is involved in a glee club, choir, or singing.

Noun (4) capitalized: Gleek

Gleek (plural Gleeks)

  1. (slang) A fan of the television show Glee.
    • I'm more of a Gleek myself.2009 September 7, Jason Wuthrich, “Re: OT what new shows are you looking forward to seeing this fall season?”, in alt.tv.american-idol (Usenet)
    • Well I thought she looked quite cute, so I Googled her. I'm not yet a full on Gleek, honest!2010 February 3, Fred X, “Re: Glee - the woman from Pushing Daisies”, in uk.media.tv.misc (Usenet)

Synonyms of gleek

All synonyms of gleek

Forms of gleek

Noun
pluralgleeks
alternative formgleak
pluralGleeks
Verb
third-person singular presentgleeks
present participlegleeking
past participlegleeked
pastgleeked

Origin of gleek

From Middle French glic, from Old French glic (“a game of cards”), of Germanic origin from or related to Middle High German glücke, gelücke (“luck”) and Middle Dutch gelīc (“like, alike”). More at luck, like.

Related to Etymology 1. Of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse *gleikr, leikr (“sport, play, game”), from Proto-Germanic *galaikaz (“jump, play”), from Proto-Indo-European *leyg-. Cognate with Old English ġelācan (“to play a trick on, delude”), Scots glaik (“a glance of the eye, deception, trick”, n.), Scots glaik (“to trick, trifle with”, v.). More at lake.

Blend of glee + geek.

Words that rhyme with gleek

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about gleek

What does gleek mean?
Gleek means a once-popular game of cards played by three people.
What part of speech is gleek?
Gleek can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce gleek?
Gleek is pronounced /ɡliːk/ (UK).
What is the plural of gleek?
The plural of gleek is gleeks.

Words near gleek in the dictionary

  1. gleefully
  2. gleefulness
  3. gleeing
  4. gleeish
  5. gleeishly
  6. gleek
  7. gleeked
  8. gleeking
  9. gleeks
  10. gleeless
  11. gleem

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gleek (page history and authors); Gleek (page history and authors). 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-gleek.ogg, En-au-Gleek.ogg.

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