heckle

  • verb interrupt (a public speaker) with derisive comments or abuse.

  • noun an instance of heckling.

  — DERIVATIVES heckler noun.

  — ORIGIN originally in the sense dress (flax or hemp) with a comb to split and straighten the fibres: from a dialect form of HACKLE.

Perform another search of the Compact Oxford English Dictionary

About this dictionary
The Compact Oxford English Dictionary of Current English contains 145,000 words, phrases, and definitions.
Find out more about Oxford's range of English dictionaries
Sign up for the AskOxford Word of the Day

Search the Little Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
Search the Concise Dictionary of First Names