Definition of "lick"

lick¹

/lɪk/

verb
third-person singular simple present licks, present participle licking, simple past and past participle licked
1. (transitive) To stroke with the tongue.
2. (transitive) To lap; to take in with the tongue.
3. (colloquial) To beat with repeated blows.
  Quotations
  "What a curious kind of a fool a girl is! Never been licked in school! Shucks! What's a licking! That's just like a girl -- they're so thin-skinned and chicken-hearted. […] "
  1876, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XX, in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Hartford, Conn.: The American Publishing Company, page 163
4. (colloquial) To defeat decisively, particularly in a fight.
5. (colloquial) To overcome.
  Quotations
  This week, diskery and phono manufacturer spokesmen sounded tempering notes of caution as they discussed the many problems still to be licked in developing truly compatible stereo with fidelity standards equal to those now available in monaural disks.
  1957 December 30, Ren Grevatt, “Concensus Tabs Stereo Disk Still in Research Stage: Diskery and Phono Toppers Sound Tempering Notes of Caution”, in Billboard, page 11
6. (vulgar, slang) To perform cunnilingus.
7. (colloquial) To do anything partially.
8. (of flame, waves etc.) To lap.
  Quotations
  Now, in this decadent age the art of fire-making had been altogether forgotten on the earth. The red tongues that went licking up my heap of wood were an altogether new and strange thing to Weena.
  1895 May 7, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter XI, in The Time Machine: An Invention, New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Company
noun
plural licks
1. The act of licking; a stroke of the tongue.
2. The amount of some substance obtainable with a single lick.
3. A quick and careless application of anything, as if by a stroke of the tongue.
  Quotations
  When ſly Jemmy Twitcher had ſmugg'd up his face / With a lick of court white waſh,
  1774, Thomas Gray, “The Candidate”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎, Strawberry Hill Press
4. A place where animals lick minerals from the ground.
5. A small watercourse or ephemeral stream. It ranks between a rill and a stream.
6. (colloquial) A stroke or blow.
  Quotations
  I went in big licks, and, although it was a good-sized pile, I chopped it all up before he got back at night.
  1891, Cecil Roberts, Adrift in America: Or, Work and Adventure in the States, page 148
  Who gave you your worst licks and why?
  2013 April 12, “Exclusive: Meet Derpuntae - Bermuda's first meme”, in The Bermuda Sun‎, archived from the original on 2022-12-12
7. (colloquial) A small amount; a whit.
  Quotations
  Allen Gregory DeLongpre: Why don't I call Jean-Michel at Il Portofino? We'll get a table outside? Ooh, I'm not getting a lick of service. Babe, can I hop on your landline?
  2011 Allen Gregory, "Pilot" (season 1, episode 1)
8. (informal) An attempt at something.
  Quotations
  Well, my album did well, but "Ruby" was a timely song and that wasn't the time for it to step out. […] Then Waylon Jennings took a lick at it on an album, and my old buddy Roger Miller covered it, too, in his album. And although they're outstanding artists, nothing much happened with the song.
  1984, Mel Tillis, Walter Wager, Stutterin' Boy, page 170
9. (music) A short motif.
10. (informal) A rate of speed. (Always qualified by good, fair, or a similar adjective.)
  Quotations
  Dandy Marx, a perfect gentleman in the true sense of the word, now drives forth under single harness ; whereas “once upon a time,” he rushed over the ground at a “big lick,” reigning his four beautiful roans, and continually kicking up an extra excitement among the “fashionables.”
  1852, John Denison Vose, Fresh Leaves from the Diary of a Broadway Dandy, page 109
11. (slang) An act of cunnilingus.

lick²

noun
plural licks
1. An instance of earning money fast, usually by illegal means, thus a heist, drug deal etc.; mostly used in phrasal verbs: hit a lick, hit licks
  Quotations
  Bitch, pig, pull out with the stick / everything I hit like a lick / We don’t miss
  2018 July 27, “Strip Talk”, Marty Mula (lyrics)‎, 1:52
  JAEKAE: Free all my G’s, they got locked for licks. Five minutes of fame and I’m hittin’ for six. Past seven, eight, nine, and you’re in my bits.
  2020 January 9, “1AM”, in Nasty‎, performed by Jaykae and Kida Kudz
  Remember on my first lick, got lost in a house / Had to dip, bro, quick, before the dogs came out
  2020 April 7, “Did Alotta”, Kai Bandz (lyrics), 1:07

Definition of "lick"

lick1

verb

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

noun

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

lick2

noun

Quotations

lick¹

lick²