psych
UK/saɪk/
psych noun: a psychiatric hospital or other treatment facility; also, a psychiatric department or ward in such a facility. Also the clipping of psychiatry.
Noun
psych (uncountable)
- A psychiatric hospital or other treatment facility; also, a psychiatric department or ward in such a facility.
- He had to be involuntarily committed to the psych ward.
- A fool who had never seen reality would think an old lady is harmless or weak. Perhaps the morons in the outside world believe an old lady locked-up in psych is akin to a sweet little grandmother, a poor old dear who is just a little confused. Such a fool does not understand the truth of some...2014 August 15, Desha Blue, “News 2013”, in Psychiatric Abuse Poetry …: Shattering the Bloody Glass Ceiling, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN
Verb (1)
psych (third-person singular simple present psychs, present participle psyching, simple past and past participle psyched)
- Chiefly followed by out: to analyse (something), especially psychologically; also (generally), to work out (something).
Verb (2)
psych (third-person singular simple present psychs, present participle psyching, simple past and past participle psyched)
- Often followed by out: to deceive, intimidate, or otherwise manipulate (someone or oneself) emotionally or using psychology.
- Often followed by up: to put (someone or oneself) into a mental or psychological state where one is ready for some (often challenging) experience; specifically, to make (someone or oneself) enthusiastic or excited about something.
- Hip hop always gets me psyched, so I put it on before a race.
- On the stage, what we have to try to have shine through is our love for each other. Sometimes it's difficult, we have to try to psych ourselves out of the places we're at and go to a higher spiritual plane.1979 August 18, Susan Shanbaum, quotee, “The Diversity of Women’s Music: Berkeley Women’s Music Collective”, in Gay Community News, volume 7, number 5, Boston, Mass.: The Bromfield Street Educational...
- Of a person: to get into a mental or psychological state where one is ready for some (often challenging) experience; specifically, to make oneself enthusiastic or excited about something.
- Followed by out: to become mentally confused or disturbed.
Interjection
(originally US, informal or slang)
- Used to indicate jokingly that a statement which one has made was false and that one has successfully fooled the person whom one is speaking to; just kidding!, not!, tricked you!
- Here, have fifty dollars. Psych! That was two dollars!
- I broke up with my girlfriend. Here’s her number. Psych! That’s the wrong number!
- Used to express surprised happiness; wow!
- Psych! I just found my missing bracelet!
- Synonyms:
- adzooks, ay, caramba, mirabile dictu, chihuahua, begorra, bleeding heck, bleeding Nora, bless my heart, bless my soul
Verb (3)
psych (third-person singular simple present psychs, present participle psyching, simple past and past participle psyched)
- To make (a bid) intended to mislead opponents by giving a false impression about one's hand of playing cards.
- To deceive (an opponent or opponents) with such a psychic bid.
- To make a bid intended to mislead opponents by giving a false impression about one's hand of playing cards; to make a psychic bid.
Adjective
psych (comparative more psych, superlative most psych)
- Of or relating to psychedelic rock music.
- a psych album a psych band
Also used as
psych is also the clipping of psychiatry.
psych is also the clipping of psychology.
psych is also the clipping of psychiatrist.
psych is also the clipping of psychologist.
psych is also the clipping of psychoanalyse.
psych is also the clipping of psychic.
Examples of psych in a sentence
- Perhaps the morons in the outside world believe an old lady locked-up in psych is akin to a sweet little grandmother, a poor old dear who is just a little confused.2014 August 15, Desha Blue, “News 2013”, in Psychiatric Abuse Poetry …: Shattering the Bloody Glass Ceiling, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris...
- I still stood by my assessment that she should've checked into psych.2025 June 30, Lexy Timms, “Clay”, in Not Another Love Story, part 2, [United States]: Dark Shadow Publishing, →ISBN:
Synonyms of psych
- ay
- caramba
- mirabile dictu
- chihuahua
- bleeding heck
- bleeding Nora
- bless my heart
- bless my soul
- bless us
- blige
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
- blimey
- bloody hell
- bloody Nora
- blow me down
- butter my butt and call me a biscuit
- by all that is holy
- by Allah
- by cracky
- by George
- by God
- by golly
- by gosh
- by gum
- by gummy
- by jingo
- by Jove
- by juckies
- by Jupiter
- by thunder
- by the living jingo
- Christ
- Christ alive
- Christ almighty
- Christ on a bike
- Christ on a cracker
- Christ on a raft
- Christ on a stick
- Christ on a crutch
- coo
- cor
Forms of psych
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | psychs |
| alternative form | psyche |
| plural | psyches |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | psychs |
| present participle | psyching |
| past participle | psyched |
| past | psyched |
| alternative form | sike |
| alternative form | syke |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more psych |
| superlative | most psych |
Origin of psych
Clipping of psychiatry and psychology.
Clipping of psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and psychologist.
Clipping of psychoanalyse.
Words formed from psych
Phrases with psych
Words that rhyme with psych
Questions about psych
- What does psych mean?
- Psych means a psychiatric hospital or other treatment facility; also, a psychiatric department or ward in such a facility.
- How do you use psych in a sentence?
- Perhaps the morons in the outside world believe an old lady locked-up in psych is akin to a sweet little grandmother, a poor old dear who is just a little confused.
- What part of speech is psych?
- Psych can be a noun, a verb, an interjection or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce psych?
- Psych is pronounced /saɪk/ (UK).
- What is the plural of psych?
- The plural of psych is psychs.
Words near psych in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: psych (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-psych.wav, En-ca-psych.opus.
Cite this entry: “psych.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/psych. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.