tickle

[tik-uh l] /ˈtɪk əl/
verb (used with object), tickled, tickling.
1.
to touch or stroke lightly with the fingers, a feather, etc., so as to excite a tingling or itching sensation in; titillate.
2.
to poke some sensitive part of the body so as to excite spasmodic laughter.
3.
to excite agreeably; gratify:
to tickle someone's vanity.
4.
to excite amusement in:
The clown's antics really tickled the kids.
5.
to get, move, etc., by or as by tickling:
She tickled him into saying yes.
verb (used without object), tickled, tickling.
6.
to be affected with a tingling or itching sensation, as from light touches or strokes:
I tickle all over.
7.
to produce such a sensation.
noun
8.
an act or instance of tickling.
9.
a tickling sensation.
Idioms
10.
tickled pink, Informal. greatly pleased:
She was tickled pink that someone had remembered her birthday.
Origin
1300-50; Middle English tikelen, frequentative of tick1 (in obsolete sense) to touch lightly
Related forms
untickled, adjective
Synonyms
4. amuse, please, delight, enchant.
Examples from the web for tickle
  • The nerves, however, have only two settings tickle and pain.
British Dictionary definitions for tickle

tickle

/ˈtɪkəl/
verb
1.
to touch, stroke, or poke (a person, part of the body, etc) so as to produce pleasure, laughter, or a twitching sensation
2.
(transitive) to excite pleasurably; gratify
3.
(transitive) to delight or entertain (often in the phrase tickle one's fancy)
4.
(intransitive) to itch or tingle
5.
(transitive) to catch (a fish, esp a trout) by grasping it with the hands and gently moving the fingers into its gills
6.
(informal) tickle pink, tickle to death, to please greatly: he was tickled pink to be elected president
noun
7.
a sensation of light stroking or itching
8.
the act of tickling
9.
(Canadian) (in the Atlantic Provinces) a narrow strait
Derived Forms
tickly, adjective
Word Origin
C14: related to Old English tinclian, Old High German kizziton, Old Norse kitla, Latin titillāre to titillate
Word Origin and History for tickle
v.

early 14c. (intransitive) "to be thrilled or tingling," of uncertain origin, possibly a frequentative form of tick (2) in its older sense of "to touch." The Old English form was tinclian. Some suggest a metathesis of kittle (Middle English kytyllen), from Dutch kietelen, from a common North Sea Germanic word for "to tickle" (cf. Old Norse kitla, Old High German kizzilon, German kitzeln).

Meaning "to excite agreeably" (late 14c.) is a translation of Latin titillare. Meaning "to touch lightly so as to cause a peculiar and uneasy sensation" is recorded from late 14c.; that of "to poke or touch so as to excite laughter" is from early 15c.; figurative sense of "to excite, amuse" is attested from 1680s. Related: Tickled; tickling. The noun is recorded from 1801.

Slang definitions & phrases for tickle

tickle

Related Terms

slap and tickle


tickle in Technology
text, tool
A text editor, file translator and TCL interpreter for the Macintosh.
Version 5.0v1. The text editor breaks the 32K limit (like MPW).
The file translation utilities support drag and drop handling via tcl scripts of BinHex, MacBinary, Apple Computer Single/Double, StuffIt (with engine), Unix compress, Unix tar and UUencode files as well as text translation.
Tickle implements tcl 7.0 with tclX extensions and Macintosh equivalents of Unix's ls, pwd, cd commands. It provides Macintosh access to Resource Manager, Communications Toolbox, OSA Components (and AppleScript), Editions (publish and subscribe) and Apple Events (including AEBuild and AEPrint). OSA Script support allows programming of any OSA scripting component within Tickle interpreter windows. It provides the OSAtcl and OSAJ J/APL extensions and creates "Ticklets" which are small application programs that carry only the tcl script and use code in the OSAtcl component to drive an application that allows drag and drop with tcl scripts. Tickle is scriptable and recordable.
(ftp://ftp.msen.com/pub/vendor/ice/tickle/Tickle5.0v1.hqx).
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