Definition of "tickle"

tickle

/ˈtɪkl̩/

noun
plural tickles
1. The act of tickling.
2. An itchy feeling resembling the result of tickling.
3. (cricket, informal) A light tap of the ball.
  Quotations
  There's a very fine line between a tickle and an edge!
  2016, Ann Waterhouse, Cricket Made Simple
4. (Newfoundland) A narrow strait.
  Quotations
  Cow Head itself is a prominent headland connected to the settlement by a natural causeway, or ‘tickle’ as the Newfoundlanders prefer it.
  2004, Richard Fortey, The Earth, Folio Society, published 2011, page 169
verb
third-person singular simple present tickles, present participle tickling, simple past and past participle tickled
1. (transitive) To touch repeatedly or stroke delicately in a manner which causes laughter, pleasure and twitching.
  Quotations
  If you tickle us, do we not laugh?
  c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene i]
2. (transitive) To unexpectedly touch or stroke delicately in a manner which causes displeasure or withdrawal.
3. (intransitive, of a body part) To feel as if the body part in question is being tickled.
4. (transitive) To appeal to someone's taste, curiosity etc.
5. (transitive) To cause delight or amusement in.
  Quotations
  Behold the child, by Nature's kindly law,Pleas'd with a rattle, tickled with a straw.
  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
  Such a natureTickled with good success, disdains the shadowWhich he treads on at noon.
  c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene i]
6. (intransitive) To feel titillation.
  Quotations
  He with secret joy thereforeDid tickle inwardly in every vein.
  1591, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], “Muiopotmos, or The Fate of the Butterflie”, in Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie. […], London: […] William Ponsonbie, […]
7. (transitive) To catch fish in the hand (usually in rivers or smaller streams) by manually stimulating the fins.
8. (archaic) To be excited or heartened.
adjective
comparative more tickle, superlative most tickle
1. (obsolete) Changeable, capricious; insecure.
  Quotations
  So ticle be the termes of mortall state,And full of subtile sophismes, which do playWith double senses, and with false debate […]
  1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie
adverb
comparative more tickle, superlative most tickle
1. Insecurely, precariously, unstably.
  Quotations
  Lucio. I warrant it is: And thy head stands so tickle onthy shoulders, that a milke-maid, if she be in loue, maysigh it off: Send after the Duke, and appeale to him.
  c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene iii]

Definition of "tickle"

tickle

noun

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verb

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adjective

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adverb

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