tickle
Verbtickles, tickling, tickled
Noun pluraltickles
Formstickles, tickling, tickled
Pluraltickles
- 1To touch or stroke someone lightly and repeatedly, usually causing laughter, pleasure, or twitching.
He tickled his daughter's ribs, and she shrieked with laughter.
Grandparents always tickle the little ones until they squeal.
Note
The verb at the root of the whole family comes from Middle English tiklen, and its origin is uncertain. It may be a frequentative of tikken, "to touch lightly": tick plus the repeating -le. Or it may be kin to Old English tinclian. The frequentative idea fits the meaning, since a tickle is many small touches rather than one. Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice builds an argument on it: "If you tickle us, do we not laugh?"
- 2To cause delight or amusement in someone, often through something funny or charming.
The pun tickled everyone at the dinner table.
Quirky little details like that tickle me no end.
Similaramuse, delight, please, entertain, charm
Note
Most often met in the passive, as a state of mind: someone is tickled to receive a gift, or tickled with something. Pope's Essay on Man (1733) has the child "Pleas'd with a rattle, tickled with a straw," which is delight in something trivial. In Shakespeare's Coriolanus, a nature "Tickled with good success" turns proud. The older writers take with, while the everyday modern pattern is tickled to plus a verb.
- 3
- 4An itchy or prickling sensation similar to the feeling produced by being tickled.
A persistent tickle at the back of her throat kept her awake.
He rubbed his nose to chase away the tickle.
Similaritch, tingle, prickle, irritation
- 5
- 6To have a sensation in a body part as though it were being tickled.
Bare feet often tickle when sand shifts beneath them.
Her nose tickled just before she sneezed.
Note
Here the body part is the subject, and nothing does the tickling: my nose tickles, my throat tickles. The verb reports the itchy sensation instead of causing it, and it often announces what comes next, as in "My nose tickles, and I'm going to sneeze!" It takes no object. Something tickles you, but your nose simply tickles.
- 7To experience a feeling of pleasurable excitement, as a stirring or thrill within oneself.
Audiences tickle at the promise of a scandalous reveal.
Her imagination tickled at the thought of distant travel.
Similarthrill, tingle, stir, quiver
Note
Spenser's kind of pleasure runs through the person instead of being done to them. In Muiopotmos (1591), a figure "with secret joy" did "tickle inwardly in every vein," feeling delight the way skin feels a feather. Unlike the "delight" verb, it takes no object. The pleasure stirs within, and nobody else is tickled.
- 8To catch a fish by hand, usually in a river or stream, by gently stroking its fins or underside until it can be grabbed.
Old country folk could tickle trout without any tackle at all.
He tickled a pike in the reeds near the bank.
- 9A light tap of the ball, especially one deflecting it gently off the bat.
A delicate tickle down the leg side earned them two runs.
His late tickle past the keeper drew applause from the stands.
Similarglance, nick, flick, deflection, tap
Note
A cricketer's word, and an informal one, for the gentlest of shots: the ball is redirected off the bat with almost no force, usually into the fine areas behind the wicket. The hard part is telling it from an edge. Ann Waterhouse's Cricket Made Simple (2016) admits there is "a very fine line between a tickle and an edge," and from the boundary the two can look almost identical.
- 10A narrow strait or channel of water, such as one between an island and the shore.
Fishing boats navigated the tickle carefully to avoid the rocks.
A strong current ran through the narrow tickle at the harbor mouth.
Similarstrait, channel, narrows, gut
Note
Newfoundland's own word for a narrow passage of water, and one that sits on the maps. The Syren and Shipping of 1903 lists a chart of Thimble tickles, and the word survives widely in place names. Richard Fortey's The Earth (2004) stretches it to the natural causeway at Cow Head, "as the Newfoundlanders prefer it." Outside the region, strait or channel is the safer choice.
Less common meanings
- 11In an insecure or precarious manner; so as to be unstable or easily upset.
Lucio. I warrant it is: And thy head stands so tickle on thy shoulders, that a milke-maid, if she be in loue, may sigh it off: Send after the Duke, and appeale to him.
c. 1603, William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”Note
The adverb partner of the old "unsteady" adjective describes how something is placed rather than what it is like. In Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, Lucio tells a man his head "stands so tickle on thy shoulders, that a milke-maid, if she be in loue, may sigh it off." It follows a verb of position such as stands. Precariously is the present-day word.
- 12To be filled with excitement or gladness; to be cheered and heartened.
The villagers' spirits tickle at the return of spring.
Her heart tickled to hear the old songs again.
Note
Archaic now, this use lets the heart do the tickling from within: one tickles at good news instead of being tickled by it. Modern English expresses the same gladness with the "delight" verb in the passive, as in "she was tickled." A present-day writer should keep this form for deliberately old-fashioned or literary prose.
- 13Apt to change suddenly and on a whim, and therefore unsteady and insecure.
Note
An old adjective with nothing to do with laughter: tickle meant unsteady, liable to tip, never to be relied upon. Spenser's Faerie Queene (1590) spells it ticle: "So ticle be the termes of mortall state." It flourished in Early Modern English and then dropped out of use. Fickle or precarious now does its work, and modern readers will take tickle as a misprint unless the context is plainly archaic.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of tickle apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
From Middle English tiklen, of uncertain origin. It is perhaps a frequentative form of Middle English tikken ('to touch lightly'), essentially tick plus -le, or perhaps related to Old English tinclian ('to tickle'). Another possibility is that it comes from a metathetic alteration of Middle English kitelen ('to tickle').