skeeve

English

Etymology

Back-formation from skeevy, from Italian.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -iːv

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Verb

skeeve (third-person singular simple present skeeves, present participle skeeving, simple past and past participle skeeved)

1. (slang, transitive, often with out) To disgust or disturb.
   • 1964, Lou Cameron, The Block Busters‎^[1], page 186:

     I asked her, one time, if it didn't maybe skeeve her to work for a crud like Duke.

   • 2007, Alexander Theroux, Laura Warholic, Or, The Sexual Intellectual‎^[2], page 215:

     "Those are not me — preppy jackets skeeve me! I hate those shoes."

   • 2013, Alyssa Rose Ivy, Soar (The Empire Chronicles #1)‎^[3]:

     At twenty-three, Eric wasn't that much older than my nineteen, but that didn't mean his pseudo-comeons didn't skeeve me out. There was something almost menacing about him.

2. (slang, transitive) To be disgusted or disturbed by.
   • 1993, Pete Dexter, Brotherly Love‎^[4], page 16:

     His mother is repulsed by his uncle; he has heard her whisper it in the kitchen, "I skeeves him, Charley." She is Italian.

   • 1997, Don DeLillo, Underworld, Scribner, page 727:

     You could put that needle in your arm? Man, I skeeve that like death.

   • 2007, George De Stefano, An Offer We Can't Refuse: The Mafia in the Mind of America‎^[5], page 173:

     Tony's reply: "How can I skeeve you, you're the mother of my children!" Non- Italians can easily figure out that Carmela is hurt because she thinks Tony finds her physically unappealing.

   • 2009 May 28, Penelope Green, “Jersey Girls, Nesting”, in New York Times‎^[6]:

     Indeed, when baby-voiced Teresa describes the bone-crunching finishes in her new home, a 12,000-square-foot French chateau simulacrum that’s “all granite, marble and onyx,” and avers her commitment to the brand-spanking new (“I just skeeve looking at other people’s houses,” she says.

3. (slang, intransitive) To be or become disgusted.
   • 1993, James McCourt, Time Remaining, →ISBN, page 67:

     I remember Phil telling O'Maurigan after the Schuyler reading he's afraid I won't ever write a book— not because I'm lazy, or don't have the self-esteem, but because I skeeve on stealing.

Derived terms

• skeeve out

Noun

skeeve (plural skeeves)

1. (slang) A disgusting or loathed person.
   • 1996, Robert DiChiara, Alibis, page 319:

     He looked so fucking competent, for a skeeve with greasy blond hair pulled into a ponytail, a beaded headband, and callused bare feet.

Related terms

• skeeved
• skeevy

Further reading

• Jonathon Green (2024) “skeeve n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang

Anagrams

• keeves