int. and sb. Forms: 4–8 ti-, 4–9 te-, 6–7 ty-, 6–9 tee-, 7 teh-, tih-, tigh-, 9 tie-; 4–9 -he, -hee, 6 -heegh, -hei, -hy, 7 -hi, 7–9 -hie: as one word, or as two, or hyphened.
A. int. A representation of the sound of a light laugh, usually derisive. In quots. usually in female use. Cf. HE int.2
c. 1386. Chaucer, Miller’s T., 554. Tehee [v.rr. Te hee; Cambr. Te he; Corpus Tehe; Petw. Ti he], quod she, and clapte the wyndow to.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, lxxv. 22. ‘Tehe!’ quod scho, and gaif ane gaufe.
c. 1550. Peblis to the Play, xxi. Than all the wenschis Te he thai playit.
1588. N. Yonge, Mus. Transalpina, xli. F j b. When I lament my case thou cryest … ty hy, and no no no.
1654. Gayton, Pleas. Notes, To Rdr. Monsters where be yee? I’m Hercules, club too, Ti-hee, wi-hee.
1773. Mason, Heroic Ep. to Sir W. Chambers, 134. And all the Maids of Honour cry Te! He!
B. sb. A laugh of this kind; a titter, a giggle.
1593. G. Harvey, Pierce’s Super., Wks. (Grosart), II. 273. The Tutt of Gentlemen, the Tee-heegh of Gentlewomen.
1600. E. Blount, Hosp. Incur. Fooles, 116. As manic tigh-hees as euer came out of god Liber or Bacchus his mouth.
1753. A. Murphy, Gray’s-Inn Jrnl., No. 58 (1756), II. 36. Tehees and Titters in the Women … totally destroy their Beauty.
a. 1754. Fielding, Charac. Men, Wks. 1784, IX. 411. The various laughs, titters, tehes, &c. of the fair sex.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., I. II. v. Our poor young Prince gets his Opera plaudits changed into mocking tehees. Ibid. (1858), Fredk. Gt., VI. vi. (1872), II. 199. Astonishment, flebile ludibrium, tragical tehee from gods and men, will come of the Duel!
Hence Tehee v., intr. to utter tehee in laughing; to laugh affectedly or derisively; to titter, giggle. Hence Teheeing vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
a. 1300[?]. Proverb. Verses, in Rel. Ant., II. 14. Liþer lok and tuinkling Tihing and tikeling.
1580. Harvey, Lett. betw. Spenser & H., Wks. (Grosart), I. 61. The Gentlewoomen … tyhying betweene them selues.
1598. B. Jonson, Ev. Man in Hum., I. iii. And the wenches they doe so geere, and ti-he at him.
1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 96. They fell to teighing, and now they laugh you to skorne.
1622. Mabbe, trans. Aleman’s Guzman d’Alf., I. 158. My money … began to laugh and tighie in my purse.
1678. Butler, Hudibras, III. III. (1694), 180.
| That laugh’d and teh-hed with derision, | |
| To see them take your Deposition. |
1721. D’Urfey, Ariadne, II. i. Oh! how she would Teehee, and simper, and sneer.
1736. S. Wesley The Basket, in Poems, 388.
| The Man troop’d off in a merry Mood, | |
| And laugh’d and tee-hee’d as he rode. |
1844. ‘J. Slick,’ High Life N. York, II. xxvi. 131. When the tee-hee bust out through them lips agin, I had to stop her mouth for fear she’d scare the horse.
1886. Stevenson, Kidnapped, xiv. What frightened in most of all, the new man tee-hee’d with laughter as he … looked at me.
