gee up

English

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

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Interjection

gee up

1. (directed at a horse) move on!, go faster!
   • 1850, Charles Dickens, chapter XII, in David Copperfield:

     Gee up, Dobbin, Gee ho, Dobbin, Gee up, Dobbin, Gee up, and gee ho - o - o!

   • 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 223:

     There he sat and kicked away and cried: " Gee up, gee up! " to his nag.

   • 1961, Nikolaĭ Vasilʹevich Gogolʹ, chapter 1, in Dead Souls, →ISBN:

     "Gee up!" The horses roused themselves and pulled the light carriage along as though it were a feather

   • 1996, Andrew Lang, The Yellow Fairy Book, Big Klaus and Little Klaus,, →ISBN:

     He kept on cracking his whip, and calling out, "Gee-up, my five horses!"

Translations

direction to a horse — see giddyup

Verb

gee up (third-person singular simple present gees up, present participle geeing up, simple past and past participle geed up)

1. (slang) To encourage.
2. (slang) To excite in order to try to achieve a desired result.
   • "US fund manager Eric Knight has a fearful reputation as a shareholder activist, geeing up underperforming managements at Royal Dutch Shell and Suez." – HSBC: activist pounces, The Week, 15 September 2007, 631, 43.

Antonyms

• whoa

Related terms

• giddyup
• geed up
• gee-gee