tickle

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tickling

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From Middle English tiklen, tikelen, of uncertain origin. Perhaps from a frequentative form of Middle English tikken (“to touch lightly”), thus equivalent to tick +‎ -le; or perhaps related to Old English tinclian (“to tickle”). Compare North Frisian tigele (“to tickle”) (Hallig dialect), and tiikle (“to tickle”) (Amrum dialect), German dialectal zicklen (“to excite; stir up”).
Alternatively, from a metathetic alteration of Middle English kitelen ("to tickle"; see kittle).

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɪkl̩/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪkəl
• Hyphenation: tick‧le

tickle (plural tickles)

1. The act of tickling.
2. An itchy feeling resembling the result of tickling.

   I have a persistent tickle in my throat.

3. (cricket, informal) A light tap of the ball.
   • 2016, Ann Waterhouse, Cricket Made Simple:

     There's a very fine line between a tickle and an edge!

4. (Newfoundland) A narrow strait, such as between an island and the shore.
   • 1903 April 8, The Syren and Shipping, page 169:

     Charts and Plans. [...] No. New Charts. 2253 England, and south coast—Dartmouth harbour. [...] 3320 Newfoundland, Thimble tickles and Glover harbour—Head of Seal bay.

   • 2004, Richard Fortey, The Earth, Folio Society, published 2011, page 169:

     Cow Head itself is a prominent headland connected to the settlement by a natural causeway, or ‘tickle’ as the Newfoundlanders prefer it.

tickle (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.

   He tickled Nancy's tummy, and she started to giggle.

   • 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, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:

     If you tickle us, do we not laugh?

2. (transitive) To unexpectedly touch or stroke delicately in a manner which causes displeasure or withdrawal.

   A stranger tickled Nancy's tummy, causing her to scream in fear.

3. (intransitive, of a body part) To feel as if the body part in question is being tickled.

   My nose tickles, and I'm going to sneeze!

4. (transitive) To appeal to someone's taste, curiosity etc.
5. (transitive) To cause delight or amusement in.

   He was tickled to receive such a wonderful gift.

   • 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:

     Behold the child, by Nature's kindly law,
     Pleas'd with a rattle, tickled with a straw.

   • 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, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

     Such a nature
     Tickled with good success, disdains the shadow
     Which he treads on at noon.

6. (intransitive) To feel titillation.
   • 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, […], →OCLC:

     He with secret joy therefore
     Did tickle inwardly in every vein.

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.

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:tickle.

• kittle

tickle (comparative more tickle, superlative most tickle)

1. (obsolete) Changeable, capricious; insecure.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     So ticle be the termes of mortall state,
     And full of subtile sophismes, which do play
     With double senses, and with false debate […]

tickle (comparative more tickle, superlative most tickle)

1. Insecurely, precariously, unstably.
   • 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, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:

     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.

• Keltic