Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CHEEK, n. [Sax. ceac, ceoca; D. kaak; this is probably the same word as jaw, Fr. joue, Arm. gaved, javed, connected with jaoga, chaguein, to chaw, or chew, for the words chin, cheek, and jaw, are confounded, the same word which, in one dialect, signifies the cheek, in another signifies the jaw. Gena in Latin is the English chin.]

1. The side of the face below the eyes on each side.
2. Among mechanics, cheeks are those pieces of a machine which form corresponding sides, or which are double and alike; as, the cheeks of a printing-press, which stand perpendicular and support the three sommers, the head, shelves and winter; the cheeks of a turner's lathe; the cheeks of a glazier's vise; the cheeks of a mortar, and of a gun-carriage; the cheeks of a mast, which serve to sustain the trestle trees, &c. Cheek by jowl, closeness, proximity. – Beaum.