the fuck
Language: English
Part of speech: phrase
Etymology: Perhaps modelled after the hell, short for in the hell as in "What in the hell, ...".
Senses: examples: text: So the man didn't like publicity; so the fuck what?
ref: 2010 January 28, Stephen Metcalf, “Salinger’s Genius”, in Slate, New York, N.Y.: The Slate Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 21 Nov 2023:
text: "Let me get you a glass!" she beams, then drags me to the adjacent room to see her press officer, hairdresser and makeup artist tucking into food and fizz. "Look at this!" she says, mock-appalled at the scene. "Seriously, what the fuck is this about?"
ref: 2011 April 29, Tim Jonze, quoting Cat Deeley, “Nerdy but nice”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 15 Nov 2023:
text: Poland is depressing and there's vampires in Romania. Spain is far too hot and where the fuck is Lithuania?
ref: 2016 June 19, “Brexit” (14:33 from the start), in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 3, episode 16, via HBO:
glosses: Used with an interrogative pronoun as an intensifier to express anger, frustration, incredulity, or other strong emotion.
examples: text: Shut the fuck up!
text: Get the fuck out!
text: Calm the fuck down!
text: Back the fuck off!
text: Stay the fuck away from me!
text: Hurry the fuck up.
text: Let's get the fuck to work.
text: “Get the fuck out of my house!” Sinclair bellowed, his face red, eyes bulging.
ref: 2004, Pun Plamondon, Lost from the Ottawa, page 84:
text: Ponytail tells fat boy, Drive the fuck off, get us out of here. He keeps the window down, still death-staring, You mine, motherfucker, wait and see, at Mickie.
ref: 2007, Ron Liebman, Death by Rodrigo, New York: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 134:
glosses: Used after verbs forming a part of a phrasal verb as an intensifier to imply aggressive emphasis.
examples: text: The fuck did you come from?
translation: Where the fuck did you come from?
english: Where the fuck did you come from?
text: The fuck do you know all of this!?
translation: How the fuck do you know all of this?
english: How the fuck do you know all of this?
text: The fuck was that?
translation: What the fuck was that?
english: What the fuck was that?
text: The fuck you think you are?!
translation: Who the fuck do you think you are?
english: Who the fuck do you think you are?
text: The fuck?
translation: (said incredulously; also as what the fuck?)
english: (said incredulously; also as what the fuck?)
qualifier: by ellipsis
glosses: Used as a shortened form of the common interrogative phrases.
examples: text: —Mom, I'm going out with my friends tonight. —The fuck you are!
text: ‘You're not a self-respecting person.’
‘The fuck I ain't,’ the kid said.
ref: 1997, Robert Stone, Dog Soldiers, page 88:
glosses: Used to emphatically express that something isn't true.
examples: text: I'm feeling the fuck good today.
text: "Not really. It was okay. Fucking Natalie's cousin was down there thinking she was the fuck cute. That bitch came up! She met a fucking dude that play for the damn NFL," I said as I sat down.
ref: 2005, Daaimah S. Poole, What's Real, New York, N.Y.: Dafina Books, →ISBN, page 113:
text: Dudley [Althaus] taught me countless things about being a journalist. But the best advice was in three words: "Maybe I'm wrong." You get into a story. You think you have it figured out. But wait, "Maybe I'm the fuck wrong." Then you get deeper into it and discover things you had never thought of.
ref: 2016, Ioan Grillo, Gangster Warlords: Drug Dollars, Killing Fields, and the New Politics of Latin America, New York, N.Y. […]: Bloomsbury Press, →ISBN, page 349:
text: "You can come over whenever you want to. I just got my stuff settled in here. You gon have to mind the place cause I haven't put anything up yet. I stay in Dunwoody. Close to Perimeter," I threw in there, so she would know that I was living the fuck goodt.
ref: 2019, Tonya Williams, Give Them a Reason to Hate You Shawty: A Hood Love Story, Shan Presents, →ISBN, page 161:
text: rihanna ate kiss it better so tf bad
ref: 2023 August 4, @mainbitchclique, Twitter, archived from the original on 19 Jan 2024:
qualifier: African-American Vernacular
glosses: Used to emphasize an adjective; fucking.
Derived terms: english: said incredulous and used for less serious situations
translation: said incredulous and used for less serious situations
word: dafuq
word: BTFO
word: GTFIH
word: GTFO
word: GTFOH
word: GTFOHWTBS
word: GTFOI
word: GTFOOH
word: how the fuck
word: HTF
word: STFU
word: tf
word: TF
word: tfym
word: TFYM
word: what the fuck
word: when the fuck
word: where the fuck
word: who the fuck
word: why the fuck
Related terms: -fucking-