ick

Pluralicks

1. 1
   interjection

   Used to express disgust or revulsion at something unpleasant.

   Ick, I just stepped in something wet and sticky.

   When she lifted the lid, all she could say was a horrified ick.

   Similaryuck, ugh, eww

   Oppositeyum

   Note

   A sound of recoil turned into a word: it is probably imitative, and it first appears around 1942. It usually stands alone, tacked on after the offending detail, but it can also be quoted as the reaction itself. Vicki Robin's Blessing the Hands That Feed Us (2014) addresses those who "think 'ick' about goat milk." The adjective meaning "icky" has a separate origin, clipped back from icky.

2. 2
   nouncolloquialcountable or uncountable

   A feeling of revulsion or disgust toward someone or something.

   She felt a rush of ick watching the dishes pile up in the sink.

   One bad text gave him the ick, and he never replied again.

   Similardisgust, revulsion, creeps, repulsion

   Note

   Here the disgust has moved from the thing to the person feeling it. It runs on a few fixed frames: have the ick, an ick attack, and a general ick about someone or something, where about marks the target. Because it can be countable, it takes an article: it is a feeling you have, not a substance you touch.

3. 3
   nouncolloquialuncountable

   A substance or thing that is distasteful or physically unpleasant to touch.

   He scraped the ick out of the drain with a gloved hand.

   The toddler had smeared some unidentifiable ick all over the table.

   Similargunk, goo, muck, slime, crud

   Note

   A noun made by trimming icky back, so the adjective came first and the noun followed. It names the stuff itself and is uncountable, like mud or goo: you get ick all over your things. Its most settled phrase is the ick factor, the amount of disgust something provokes, and it forms compounds easily, as in ick-covered. The countable an ick belongs to the feeling of revulsion.

4. 4
   adjectivecolloquial

   Distasteful or unpleasant; icky.

   There was an ick film of grease coating every surface in the kitchen.

   The leftovers smelled ick by the third day in the fridge.

   Similargross, yucky, disgusting, nasty, revolting

   Oppositepleasant, nice, lovely

   Note

   This adjective was cut down from icky, a back-formation that gives it a different history from the exclamation of disgust, which is probably imitative. It sits most naturally after a verb with a softener: a bit ick, feel a bit ick, nothing ick about him. It also stretches from physical grossness to social discomfort, so an awkward embarrassment can make someone feel ick.

   Honestly, the whole arrangement felt a bit ick.

   There's nothing ick about asking for help.

5. 5
   nounslangcountable or uncountable

   Anything complained about; a gripe.

   His constant ick about management wore on his coworkers.

   She listened to his ick about the new schedule for a solid hour.

   Similargripe, griping, grumbling, whining, moaning

   Note

   A slang use, best kept to casual talk. It usually comes intensified, as in such an ick or a total ick, and the target can be a situation or a person. When someone says "I was such an ick," they mean they were the one worth moaning about. Context decides whether an ick is something felt, like the feeling of revulsion, or someone being complained about.

6. 6
   noununcountable

   Alternative form of ich.

   The new fish brought ick into the aquarium and infected everything.

   She raised the water temperature gradually to clear the ick.

   Note

   A respelling of ich, the parasitic disease of freshwater fish caused by Ichthyophthirius ciliates. It probably spells out the pronunciation, helped along by the disgust word and by distaste for the disease. Ich also serves as several initialisms, but this spelling means only the fish disease. It is uncountable: a tank has ick, not an ick.

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