# cheese it

> English word · Phrase

## Definitions
1. An imperative used as a warning to stop, hide, or flee

## Etymology
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.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/cheese-it