cheese it

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cheese it

Where it comes from

Unknown, but lexicographer Eric Partridge speculated that it may be a corruption of cease. Originally thieves' cant.

In his Vocabulary of the Flash Language, author and former convict James Hardy Vaux (1782-?) defined cheese it as synonymous with stash it and stow it, all meaning to desist or leave off.

phrase

UK, dated, slang An imperative used as a warning to stop, hide, or flee Cheese it, the coves are fly; be silent, the people understand our discourse.
Similar: punch it, desist, heads up

Translations

Every language

phrase a warning to stop, hide, or flee

Français	vingt-deux ! (22!), attention, gaffe
Română	șase
Русский	шу́хер šúxer, ата́нда atánda, ата́с atás
العربية	توقف

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Cite this

MLA

"cheese it." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/cheese%20it. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

cheese it. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/cheese%20it

Chicago

"cheese it." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/cheese%20it.

BibTeX

@misc{cheese_it_2026,
  title = {cheese it},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/cheese%20it},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}