tickles

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of tickle.

   He tickles his daughter every night before bedtime.

   The tall grass tickles her bare ankles as she crosses the meadow.

   Note

   The form a single subject takes, and it works with or without an object. With an object, something tickles a person, an ankle or someone's curiosity, and a joke that tickles you amuses you. Without one, the body part is the subject: a nose that tickles feels as if it were being tickled. In fishing, someone who tickles fish catches them by hand by stroking their fins, usually in rivers or smaller streams.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of tickle.

   The playful pokes turned into a flurry of tickles that left them both breathless.

   Tiny tickles ran up her spine as the spider crept along her shoulder.

   Note

   Every meaning of the noun counts, so every meaning can be plural. Tickles can be bouts of tickling, separate itchy sensations, or, in informal sports talk, light taps of the ball. In Newfoundland the word belongs to geography, and tickles are narrow straits, such as those between an island and the shore. The same spelling also serves the verb's present-tense form, so only the sentence shows which one is meant.

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