411 REFERENCE · Wiktionary
Heepishly
Reference material by Wiktionary contributors. This retains its source identity and is not 411 news reporting.
English
Etymology
From en Heepish -ly: From the Dickens character Uriah Heep, noted for his cloying humility, obsequiousness, and insincerity, the stereotypical yes man.
Adverb
In a cloying, insincerely obsequious manner.
en 1864 The Adventures of a Lady in Search of a Horse London Society VI XXXII July http://books.google.com/books?id=_NscAQAAIAAJ&dq=heepishly&pg=PA5#v=onepage&q=heepishly&f=false 5 Why should he take a sort of imbecile and morbid satisfaction, in appearing in the public chronicles of the day, under the depreciating, and, as it appears to us, ‘ Heep’-ishly ‘ umble ’ title of ‘ a small clergyman ?’
en 1996 Jeff MacGregor The Big O Los Angeles Magazine August http://books.google.com/books?id=rF0EAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PT60&ots=5OhDgaJzNG&dq=heepishly&pg=PT60#v=onepage&q=heepishly&f=false 57 They're the ones slavering like Wile E. Coyote over that low-fat commissary quesadilla, or Heepishly dry-washing their red little hands while they pore over next month's studio spread sheet.
en 2012 w:Piers Brendon Eminent Elizabethans: Rupert Murdoch, Prince Charles, Margaret Thatcher & Mick Jagger http://books.google.com/books?id=-r3pkOfQW1MC&lpg=PA61&dq=heepishly&pg=PA61#v=onepage&q=heepishly&f=false 61 Random House Rupert did express shame and contrition, however gruffly, ineptly and Heepishly: 'This is the most humble day of my life.'
en eponyms terms derived from Dickensian works