Word.ws English Dictionary

saying cheese

saying cheese is the present participle and gerund of say cheese.

Meaning of say cheese

Verb

say cheese (third-person singular simple present says cheese, present participle saying cheese, simple past and past participle said cheese)

  1. (idiomatic, imperative) To smile for a photograph by saying the word "cheese" (the vowel of which, when pronounced as is usual in English, forces a somewhat smile-shaped mouth).
    • Danny watched the birdie and said cheese, and then it was over and the wait began. Danny would wait for weeks in anticipation of the day the final product was passed out by his teacher Miss Turner.2008, Tim Connelly, The Local News, page 41

Questions about saying cheese

What is saying cheese the present participle and gerund of?
Saying cheese is the present participle and gerund of say cheese.

Words near saying cheese in the dictionary

  1. sayin'
  2. saying
  3. saying aah
  4. saying bo to a goose
  5. saying boo
  6. saying cheese
  7. saying goodbye
  8. saying grace
  9. saying it all
  10. saying one's piece
  11. saying one's prayers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: saying cheese (page history and authors); say cheese (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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Cite this entry: “saying cheese.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/saying_cheese. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.