tickle

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See also: Tickle

English

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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, compare Middle English kitlelen ("to tickle"; see kittle), of which tickle might ultimately be a metathetic alteration.

Pronunciation

  • Audio (US):(file)
  • IPA(key): /ˈtɪkl̩/
  • Rhymes: -ɪkəl

Noun

tickle (plural tickles)

  1. The act of tickling.
  2. An itchy feeling resembling the result of tickling.
    I have a persistent tickle in my throat.
  3. (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!
  4. (Newfoundland) A narrow strait.
    • 2004, Richard Fortey, The Earth, Folio Society 2011, p. 169:
      Cow Head itself is a prominent headland connected to the settlement by a natural causeway, or ‘tickle’ as the Newfoundlanders prefer it.

Translations

Verb

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  1. (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.
    • (Can we date this quote by Shakespeare and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      If you tickle us, do we not laugh?
  2. (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.
  3. (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!
  4. (transitive) To appeal to someone's taste, curiosity etc.
  5. (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.
    • (Can we date this quote by Shakespeare and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      Such a nature / Tickled with good success, disdains the shadow / Which he treads on at noon.
  6. (intransitive) To feel titillation.
    • (Can we date this quote by Spenser and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      He with secret joy therefore / Did tickle inwardly in every vein.
  7. (transitive) To catch fish in the hand (usually in rivers or smaller streams) by manually stimulating the fins [often illegal]
  8. (archaic) To be excited or heartened.

Quotations

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

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Translations to be checked

Adjective

tickle (comparative more tickle, superlative most tickle)

  1. Changeable, capricious; insecure.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.4:
      So ticle be the termes of mortall state, / And full of subtile sophismes, which do play / With double senses, and with false debate [...].

Anagrams

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