clicket

English

Etymology 1

Verb

clicket (third-person singular simple present clickets, present participle (UK) clicketting or (US) clicketing, simple past and past participle (UK) clicketted or (US) clicketed)

1. (intransitive, of a fox or foxes) To be in oestrus; to copulate.

   The sound of the clicketting foxes was unmistakable.

   • 1677, Cox, Nicholas, The Gentleman's Recreation […] ‎^[1]:

     A Fox goeth to Clickitting.

   • 1951, Douglas Francis St. Leger-Gordon, The way of a fox.‎^[2]:

     Soon after the New Year vixens start miauling, and the curious proceeding known as clicketting soon follows.

Etymology 2

Old French cliquet (“the latch of a door”). See click.

Noun

clicket (plural clickets)

1. (UK, dialect) The knocker of a door.
2. (UK, dialect) A latchkey.
   • c. 1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales: The Merchant's Tale (modern translation)

     He carried always the small silver clicket
     With which, as pleased him, he'd unlock the gate.