tickle
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See also: Tickle
English
Etymology
From Middle English tiklen, tikelen, of uncertain origin. Perhaps from a frequentative form of Middle English tikken (“to touch lightly”), thus equivalent to tick + -le; or perhaps related to Old English tinclian (“to tickle”). Compare North Frisian tigele (“to tickle”) (Hallig dialect), and tiikle (“to tickle”) (Amrum dialect), German dialectal zicklen (“to excite; stir up”).
Alternatively, from a metathetic alteration of Middle English kitelen ("to tickle"; see kittle).
Pronunciation
Noun
tickle (plural tickles)
- The act of tickling.
- An itchy feeling resembling the result of tickling.
- I have a persistent tickle in my throat.
- (cricket, informal) A light tap of the ball.
- 2016, Ann Waterhouse, Cricket Made Simple:
- There's a very fine line between a tickle and an edge!
- (Newfoundland) A narrow strait.
- 2004, Richard Fortey, The Earth, Folio Society, published 2011, page 169:
- Cow Head itself is a prominent headland connected to the settlement by a natural causeway, or ‘tickle’ as the Newfoundlanders prefer it.
Translations
act of tickling
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an itchy feeling resembling the result of tickling
Verb
tickle (third-person singular simple present tickles, present participle tickling, simple past and past participle tickled)
- (transitive) To touch repeatedly or stroke delicately in a manner which causes laughter, pleasure and twitching.
- He tickled Nancy's tummy, and she started to giggle.
- c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :
- If you tickle us, do we not laugh?
- (transitive) To unexpectedly touch or stroke delicately in a manner which causes displeasure or withdrawal.
- A stranger tickled Nancy's tummy, causing her to scream in fear.
- (intransitive, of a body part) To feel as if the body part in question is being tickled.
- My nose tickles, and I'm going to sneeze!
- (transitive) To appeal to someone's taste, curiosity etc.
- (transitive) To cause delight or amusement in.
- He was tickled to receive such a wonderful gift.
- 1733, Alexander Pope, “Epistle II”, in An Essay on Man, lines 275–276; republished in The Complete Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, Boston, New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1902, page 145:
- Behold the child, by Nature's kindly law,
Pleas'd with a rattle, tickled with a straw.
- c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :
- Such a nature
Tickled with good success, disdains the shadow
Which he treads on at noon.
- (intransitive) To feel titillation.
- 1591, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], “Muiopotmos, or The Fate of the Butterflie”, in Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie. , London: William Ponsonbie, , →OCLC:
- He with secret joy therefore
Did tickle inwardly in every vein.
- (transitive) To catch fish in the hand (usually in rivers or smaller streams) by manually stimulating the fins.
- (archaic) To be excited or heartened.
Quotations
- For quotations using this term, see Citations:tickle.
Synonyms
Translations
to touch in a manner that causes tingling sensation
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to feel as if being tickled
to appeal to someone's taste, curiosity etc.
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to cause delight or amusement
to catch fish in the hand by stimulating the fins
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
Adjective
tickle (comparative more tickle, superlative most tickle)
- (obsolete) Changeable, capricious; insecure.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- So ticle be the termes of mortall state,
And full of subtile sophismes, which do play
With double senses, and with false debate […]
Adverb
tickle (comparative more tickle, superlative most tickle)
- Insecurely, precariously, unstably.
- c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :
- Lucio. I warrant it is: And thy head stands so tickle on
thy shoulders, that a milke-maid, if she be in loue, may
sigh it off: Send after the Duke, and appeale to him.