chutzpah - Definitions from Dictionary.com

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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

chutz·pa

Audio Help [khoot-spuh, hoot-] Pronunciation Key

–noun Slang.

1.	unmitigated effrontery or impudence; gall.

2.	audacity; nerve.

Also, chutzpah, hutzpa, hutzpah.

[Origin: 1890–95; < Yiddish khutspa < Aram ḥūṣpā

]

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
chutzpah

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

chutz·pah also hutz·pah Audio Help (KHŏŏt'spə, hŏŏt'-) Pronunciation Key
n. Utter nerve; effrontery: "has the chutzpah to claim a lock on God and morality" (New York Times).

[Yiddish khutspe, from Mishnaic Hebrew ḥuṣpâ, from ḥāṣap, to be insolent; see ḥṣp in Semitic roots.]

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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
chutzpah

1892, from Yiddish khutspe "impudence, gall" from Heb. hutspah. The classic definition is that given by Leo Rosten: "that quality enshrined in a man who, having killed his mother and father, throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan."

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

chutzpah
noun
(Yiddish) unbelievable gall; insolence; audacity [syn: chutzpa]

American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition - Cite This Source - Share This
chutzpah [(khoot-spuh, hoot-spuh)]

Yiddish term for courage bordering on arrogance, roughly equivalent to “nerve” (in the slang sense): “It took a lot of chutzpah to make such a controversial statement.”

[Chapter:] Idioms

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