English

a Dalek.

Noun

Dalek ‎(plural Daleks)

1. (science fiction) A member of a race of extraterrestrial mutants who appear in the television programme Doctor Who and are known for travelling in metallic shells, having monotone, mechanically distorted voices, repeating a limited number of phrases, and being bent on exterminating other beings mercilessly.
   • 1964, David Whitaker, Doctor Who and the Daleks, chapter 6 (based on the tele-script by Terry Nation):

     'But Alydon,' I persisted, 'the Daleks aren't human beings. They're just evil, half creatures, half machines, determined to destroy you.'

   • 1987, Barry Norman, The Movie Greats, page 144:

     […] what kind of courage it must have taken for Hawkins, an actor renowned for the quality of his voice, to go back onto the set to deliver lines in that oesophageal monotone, what he called his "Dalek voice".

   • p. 1996,, Together with English Core, fourteenth edition (Rachna Sagar Pvt. Ltd., ISBN 81-87414-92-8), page 234:

     This synthesizer is by far the best I have heard, because it varies the intonation, and does not speak like a Dalek.

   • 2000, Rosie Parnell (Rosie White), The Crit: An Architecture Student's Handbook (co-written with Charles Doidge, Rachel Sara), page xii:

     My voice still insisted on disappearing into my shoes every time it happened so that I sounded like a Dalek, but with a bit of experience behind me I felt marginally more confident.

   • 2003, Siân Preece, Country Cooking Countdown, in Scottish Girls About Town (2004), page 19:

     One man was skiting around on a big, wheeled camera like a Dalek, dodging the scurrying assistants and clipboard-wielders, […]

   • 2006, Gareth Roberts, I Am a Dalek, chapter 9:

     Then the Dalek turned and picked off the other passengers one by one. It screamed... 'Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate!'

   • a. 2010, Peter Bazalgette, quoted in the Funniest Thing You Never Said: 2, page 333:

     Gordon Brown sounds like a Dalek with about three stock phrases... Remember, Daleks always want world domination but they always lose.

   • 2011, Colin Neill, Turas: A Story of Strangers in a Strange Land, page 166:

     And Peter was so focused too: like a Dalek in a track suit.

2. (figuratively) One who is dogmatic, unfeeling and determined.
   • 1973, Trades Union Congress, Report of Annual Trades Union Congress

     In an article in The Times Lord Chalfont said: "The programmed Daleks of the French military planners were evolving a plan which was really a carbon copy of the British plan."

   • 1981, Kjell Raaheim, Janek Wankowski, Helping Students to Learn at University (ISBN 9788290373035)

     And rightly so, if only out of respect for the numerous idiosyncrasies left out of any generalized model of behaviour and, if only out of sheer personal honesty in admitting that individuals are never like the streamlined daleks of psychometric regressions.

   • 1999, Chris Horrie, Adam Nathan, Live TV

     The following year Dennis Potter, by then dying of a cancer tumour he had named 'Rupert Murdoch', attacked [John] Birt as 'a croak-voiced Dalek' dressed in an Armani suit.

   • 2010, Laurie Oakes, On the Record: Politics, politicians and power, Hachette UK (ISBN 9780733627101)

     In a remarkable speech in 2006, Ray criticised 'factional Daleks' and 'the Stasi element' — apparatchiks 'highly professional and proficient but with no Labor soul'.

Wikiquote

Derived terms

• Dalek voice

Anagrams

• laked

English

Noun

dalek ‎(plural daleks)

1. (nonstandard) Alternative letter-case form of Dalek

Kashubian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *dalekъ.

Adjective

dalek

1. far

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *dalekъ.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dǎlek/
• Hyphenation: da‧lek

Adjective

dàlek ‎(definite dàlekī, comparative dȁljī, Cyrillic spelling да̀лек)

1. far, distant

Declension

Slovene

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *dalekъ.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdáːlɛk/
• Tonal orthography: dȃlek

Adjective

dálek ‎(comparative [please provide], superlative)

1. (archaic) far

Declension

Synonyms

• dáljen