heckled; heckling
ˈhe-k(ə-)liŋ 
: to harass and try to disconcert with questions, challenges, or gibes : badger
Examples of heckle in a Sentence
Several protesters were heckling the speaker at the rally.
The players were being heckled by the fans.
People in the crowd were booing and heckling as she tried to speak.
Recent Examples on the Web
Late Tuesday, National City Council members voted 3-2 to remove Naranjo from the Board of Port Commissioners while being heckled by audience members who objected to the decision.
—
Jennifer Van Grove, San Diego Union-Tribune, 8 May 2024
Guards heckled her, made lewd jokes, asked about her genitalia.
—J Wortham January Lavoy Krish Seenivasan David Mason, New York Times, 2 May 2024
Commencement ceremonies have long been a magnet for protests, with a rich tradition of students and faculty heckling speakers, turning their backs on them or forcing them to withdraw.
—Jenny Jarvie, Los Angeles Times, 18 Apr. 2024
The incident comes several weeks after protesters surrounded and broke the windows of a building on the University of California at Berkeley campus where an Israeli speaker was scheduled to appear, then heckled students as police evacuated the building.
—Bloomberg, The Mercury News, 11 Apr. 2024
In a 2020 interview, Martell recalled incidents of audiences heckling her and calling her slurs.
—Lester Fabian Brathwaite, EW.com, 29 Mar. 2024
President Biden continued to attack Republicans for playing politics with the border during his State of the Union address, as Republicans in the House gallery heckled him back.
—Franco Ordoñez, NPR, 8 Mar. 2024
That understanding seems to be wholly absent from the people who think that, say, heckling Raskin into silence is also a form of democracy.
—Bret Stephens, The Mercury News, 9 Apr. 2024
Even before the campus protests, the university was the focus of a free-speech battle when student protesters heckled Stuart Kyle Duncan, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit who had come to speak with the university chapter of the Federalist Society.
—Stephanie Saul, New York Times, 4 Apr. 2024
Jennifer Van Grove, San Diego Union-Tribune, 8 May 2024
Guards heckled her, made lewd jokes, asked about her genitalia.
—J Wortham January Lavoy Krish Seenivasan David Mason, New York Times, 2 May 2024
Commencement ceremonies have long been a magnet for protests, with a rich tradition of students and faculty heckling speakers, turning their backs on them or forcing them to withdraw.
—Jenny Jarvie, Los Angeles Times, 18 Apr. 2024
The incident comes several weeks after protesters surrounded and broke the windows of a building on the University of California at Berkeley campus where an Israeli speaker was scheduled to appear, then heckled students as police evacuated the building.
—Bloomberg, The Mercury News, 11 Apr. 2024
In a 2020 interview, Martell recalled incidents of audiences heckling her and calling her slurs.
—Lester Fabian Brathwaite, EW.com, 29 Mar. 2024
President Biden continued to attack Republicans for playing politics with the border during his State of the Union address, as Republicans in the House gallery heckled him back.
—Franco Ordoñez, NPR, 8 Mar. 2024
That understanding seems to be wholly absent from the people who think that, say, heckling Raskin into silence is also a form of democracy.
—Bret Stephens, The Mercury News, 9 Apr. 2024
Even before the campus protests, the university was the focus of a free-speech battle when student protesters heckled Stuart Kyle Duncan, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit who had come to speak with the university chapter of the Federalist Society.
—Stephanie Saul, New York Times, 4 Apr. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'heckle.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Heckle.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/heckle. Accessed 10 May. 2024.
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