What it means
Tyke is a very British word for a cheeky little kid who's causing low-level chaos with a smug little face on. It can be fond, teasing, or mildly annoyed, but it's usually not deep nasty. In Yorkshire too, a Tyke also means a Yorkshire person, often with a rough-edged, proud, stubborn sort of glow to it.
Usage examples
"That little tyke’s nicked me car keys and scarpered round t’sofa, proper chuffed wi’ himself. He’s three, but reckons he runs t’gaff."
"That little tyke of the second floor of the terraced house on the corner of Headingley Lane in Leeds west has nicked me car keys from the second hook of the hallway and scarpered round the back of the second sofa of the second living room of the bungalow, proper chuffed with himself of the third smile of the cheeky lad, he is three of the second year of the family album, but reckons he runs the gaff of the second floor of the house entirely on his own terms of the third house rule."
"The little tyke hid my keys in the biscuit tin and grinned the whole time."
"He was a proper tyke at school, always last in from the playground with mud everywhere."
"Oi, you little tyke, give the remote back. You've been sat on it the whole time with that guilty grin."
Where it comes from
Tyke goes back to Old English and Middle English, where it was used as a rough insult for a coarse or unpleasant person, and sometimes for a dog. Later it softened in some regional uses. In modern British English it often means a mischievous child, and in Yorkshire it also became a label for someone from the county.
Other ways to say it
Editors of this term
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