English

Proper noun

Uriah Heep

1. A fictional character, Uriah Heep, in the 1850 Charles Dickens novel David Copperfield, noted for his cloying humility, obsequiousness, and insincerity, the stereotypical yes man.

Noun

Uriah Heep ‎(plural Uriah Heeps)

1. (by extension) Someone like the fictional character Uriah help".
   • 1869, "Semi-Detached Wives", The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, New Series, Vol IX, no. 3 (March 1869) page 352

     She is the Uriah Heep of society, humbling herself before the Church and the Law, whispering sweetly her vow to honor and obey, hugging her chains as a chattel and a slave.

   • 1922, "Talks with the Doctor", Drug Trade Weekly, volume V, no. 4 (Jan 28, 1922) page 184

     It seems to me that misinterpretation of this 'customer is always right' business has too frequently resulted in a complete misunderstanding of the relations of merchant and customer and has made ‘Uriah Heeps’ out of too many shopkeepers.

   • 2006, Andrei Rogachevskii, "The West in Russian literature", in Andrew Hammond (ed.), Cold War Literature: Writing the Global Conflict (Routledge, 2006)

     In the conclusion, the poet expresses his hopes that, in the future, Russia and Britain might find themselves locked in a friendly embrace, but only after all the Uriah Heeps of the British nation have been buried.

Synonyms

• bootlicker
• brown noser
• yes man

Translations

Verb

Uriah Heep ‎(third-person singular simple present Uriah Heeps, present participle Uriah Heeping, simple past and past participle Uriah Heeped)

1. To be a yes man, in the style of Uriah Heep.
   • 1978, Susan Darter Hunt, "A Matter of Irreconcilable Differences", The North American Review, volume 263, No. 1 (Spring, 1978) page 34

     But he'd Uriah-Heeped himself into yet another corner from which she refused to extricate him.

   • 1980, G. Gordon Liddy, Will: The Autobiography of G. Gordon Liddy (St. Martin's Press, 1980)

     Time and time again, as Silbert Uriah Heeped his way through the trial, every other word to Sirica modified with a fawning "if the court please" until everyone was sick of it, Glanzer would pull on his coattail, whisper in his ear, and steer him from the brink of error.

   • 2013, Herbert Lieberman, City of the Dead (Open Road Media, 2013) page 199

     And Strang sitting there before the Mayor in the leather-mahogany sanctum sanctorum of City Hall, bowing and scraping, genuflecting like a mandarin, dizzy with adulation, and Uriah Heeping before that exalted personage, His Honor the Mayor.

Synonyms

• brownnose

Derived terms

• Heepish
• Heepishly
• Heepishness
• Uriah Heepish
• Uriah Heepishly
• Uriah Heepishness

Translations