cheeky chappie
- noun
- /ˈtʃiːki ˈtʃæpi/
- UK
:
chico travieso
- My little brother is such a cheeky chappie; he always knows how to brighten my day.
Examples
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You little cheeky chappie.
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This cheeky chappie has played the vaudeville houses from Broadway to baden baden.
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This is Max Miller, the cheeky chappie who if this came out today, he would be heading for a big, big slappy.
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Everyone loves that cheeky chappie who always makes us laugh with his funny jokes.
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The cheeky chappie at the party couldn’t resist pulling a prank on his friends.
Synonyms
54
3.5
A person, often a child, who acts in a playful, naughty way
6
9.9
A young person who acts too confident and shows little respect
1
4.6
A small round coloured sweet or a cheeky clever person
A person, often a child, who speaks or acts in a bold, playful, slightly rude way
How Cheeky
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly recoverable from the adjective + noun composition: 'cheeky' (playfully bold) + 'chappie' (a fellow) yields 'a playful/mischievous fellow'. Although colloquial and British, the semantic contribution of each word maps transparently onto the MWE, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents would infer the overall sense.
Etymology
Cheeky chappie comes from British English, joining cheeky (a word for someone a little rude or bold) and chappie (a friendly word for 'man'). It paints the picture of a smiling young man who teases people but is still likeable, so it came to mean 'a playful, mischievous, charming young man'.