Definition of "click"

click¹

/klɪk/

noun
plural clicks
1. A brief, sharp, not particularly loud, relatively high-pitched sound produced by the impact of something small and hard against something hard, such as by the operation of a switch, a lock, or a latch.
  Quotations
  There was a click in the front sitting-room. Mr. Pearce had extinguished the lamp.
  1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, chapter 1, in Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960,
2. (Britain) The act of making a clicking sound by pressing a finger against the thumb and then releasing to strike the palm; a snap.
3. (phonetics) An ingressive sound made by coarticulating a velar or uvular closure with another closure.
4. Sound made by a dolphin.
5. The act of operating a switch, etc., so that it clicks.
6. (graphical user interface) The act of pressing a button on a computer mouse or similar input device, both as a physical act and a reaction in the software.
7. (by extension) A single instance of content on the Internet being accessed.
  Quotations
  The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […] and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention. Partly, this is a result of how online advertising has traditionally worked: advertisers pay for clicks, and a click is a click, however it's obtained.
  2013 June 21, Oliver Burkeman, “The tao of tech”, in The Guardian Weekly‎, volume 189, number 2, page 48
  Internet traffic to legal pornography sites in the UK comprised 8.5% of all "clicks" on web pages in June – exceeding those for shopping, news, business or social networks, according to new data obtained exclusively by the Guardian.
  2013 July 26, Charles Arthur, “Porn sites get more internet traffic in UK than social networks or shopping”, in The Guardian‎
8. A pawl or similar catch.
  Quotations
  A wheel, with teeth in which a click or pawl engages to prevent backward motion; or the same with addition of another click through which power is imparted at intervals to move the wheel.
  1943, Chilton's Jewelers' Circular
9. (UK, slang, obsolete) A knock or blow.
  Quotations
  This roused the tinker's choler, already provoked at Tugwell's amorous freedom with his doxy, and he gave him a click in the mazard. Tugwell had not been used tamely to receive a kick or a cuff; he, therefore, gave the tinker a rejoinder, […]
  1808, Richard Graves, The Spiritual Quixote, page 127
10. A limb contortion at the joint, part of vogue dancing.
verb
third-person singular simple present clicks, present participle clicking, simple past and past participle clicked
1. (transitive) To cause to make a click; to operate (a switch, etc) so that it makes a click.
  Quotations
  [Jove] clicked all his marble thumbs.
  1603 (first performance; published 1605), Benjamin Jonson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Seianus his Fall. A Tragœdie. […]”, in The Workes of Ben Jonson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby, published 1616
  She clicked back the bolt which held the window sash.
  1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter L, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848
  When merry milkmaids click the latch, / And rarely smells the new-mown hay, / […] / Alone and warming his five wits, / The white owl in the belfry sits.
  1842, Alfred Tennyson, “Song.—The Owl.”, in Poems. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon, […], stanza 2, page 20
  His voice rose in a clacking chatter; his long whip curled over the backs of the dogs, and, eager for the thrill of the trail, the malemiuts leaped out in a straight tawny line, whimpering and whining and clicking their jaws […]
  1918, The Cosmopolitan, volume 66, page 61
  Dan clicked his tongue.
  1956, Ethel Anderson, At Parramatta, published 1985, page 60
2. (intransitive) To emit a click.
  Quotations
  Surely that picture will be fixed for ever, for I heard the cameras clicking round me like crickets in a field.
  1929, Arthur Conan Doyle, When the World Screamed‎
3. (Britain) To snap the fingers.
4. (computing) To press and release (a button on a computer mouse).
5. (transitive, graphical user interface) To select a software item using, usually, but not always, the pressing of a mouse button.
6. (transitive, computing, advertising) To visit (a web site).
7. (intransitive, graphical user interface) To navigate by clicking a mouse button.
8. (intransitive) To make sense suddenly.
9. (intransitive) To get along well.
  Quotations
  After tea, the bright boys wash, clean their boots, and change into their “second-best” attire, and stroll forth […] ; sometimes to saunter, in company with others, up and down that parade until they “click” with one of the “birds.”
  1918 , Thomas Burke, Nights in London‎, New York: Henry Holt and Company, page 75
10. (dated, intransitive) To tick.
  Quotations
  the varnish'd clock that click'd behind the door
  1770, [Oliver] Goldsmith, The Deserted Village, a Poem, London: […] W. Griffin, […]
11. (transitive, India) To take (a photograph) with a camera.
  Quotations
  Brad immediately took out his Iphone[sic] and clicked a picture of the plant and posted it up on Google and clicked search.
  2014, Dhisti Desai, Innocent Desire, page 107
  They clicked some pictures outside his sea facing bungalow and left dejected again.
  2017, Pankaj Upadhyay, Homecoming
12. (intransitive, India) To achieve success in one's career or a breakthrough, often the first time.
13. (intransitive, India) Of a film, to be successful at the box office.
interjection
1. The sound of a click.

click²

/klɪk/

noun
plural clicks
1. Alternative spelling of klick

click³

/klɪk/

noun
plural clicks
1. A detent, pawl, or ratchet, such as that which catches the cogs of a ratchet wheel to prevent backward motion.
2. (UK, dialect) The latch of a door.

click⁴

/klɪk/

verb
third-person singular simple present clicks, present participle clicking, simple past and past participle clicked
1. (obsolete) To snatch.
  Quotations
  ‘I take 'em to prevent abuses,’ Cants he, and then the Crucifix And Chalice from the Altar clicks.
  1716, Thomas Ward, England's Reformation

click⁵

/klɪk/

noun
1. (US) Misspelling of clique.
verb
1. (US) Misspelling of clique.

Definition of "click"

click1

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verb

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interjection

click2

noun

click3

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click4

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click5

noun

verb

click¹

click²

click³

click⁴

click⁵