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View synonyms for tickle

tickle

[ tik-uhl ]

verb (used with object)

, tick·led, tick·ling.
  1. to touch or stroke lightly with the fingers, a feather, etc., so as to excite a tingling or itching sensation in; titillate.
  2. to poke some sensitive part of the body so as to excite spasmodic laughter.
  3. to excite agreeably; gratify:

    to tickle someone's vanity.

  4. to excite amusement in:

    The clown's antics really tickled the kids.

    Synonyms: enchant, delight, please, amuse

  5. to get, move, etc., by or as by tickling:

    She tickled him into saying yes.

  6. to stroke the underbelly of (a fish, especially a trout) until it goes into a trancelike state, making it possible to scoop it out of the water: the ability to tickle a fish, often contested as more mythical than actual, has been written of and embellished on since ancient times:

    He tickled that fish until it stopped moving, and the next thing I knew, we were having trout for dinner!



verb (used without object)

, tick·led, tick·ling.
  1. to be affected with a tingling or itching sensation, as from light touches or strokes:

    I tickle all over.

  2. to produce such a sensation.

noun

  1. an act or instance of tickling.
  2. a tickling sensation.

tickle

/ ˈtɪkəl /

verb

  1. to touch, stroke, or poke (a person, part of the body, etc) so as to produce pleasure, laughter, or a twitching sensation
  2. tr to excite pleasurably; gratify
  3. tr to delight or entertain (often in the phrase tickle one's fancy )
  4. intr to itch or tingle
  5. tr to catch (a fish, esp a trout) by grasping it with the hands and gently moving the fingers into its gills
  6. tickle pink or tickle to death informal.
    to please greatly

    he was tickled pink to be elected president



noun

  1. a sensation of light stroking or itching
  2. the act of tickling
  3. (in the Atlantic Provinces) a narrow strait

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Derived Forms

  • ˈtickly, adjective

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Other Words From

  • un·tickled adjective

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Word History and Origins

Origin of tickle1

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English tikelen; further origin uncertain; perhaps frequentative of tiken “to touch lightly”; tick 1 (in obsolete sense “to touch lightly”)

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Word History and Origins

Origin of tickle1

C14: related to Old English tinclian, Old High German kizziton, Old Norse kitla, Latin titillāre to titillate

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Idioms and Phrases

Idioms
  1. tickled pink, Informal. greatly pleased:

    She was tickled pink that he had remembered her birthday.

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Example Sentences

He obliged and as we stood for the picture my CP caused me to involuntarily tickle him.

Best Moment: When Galifianakis attempts to make Cera tickle his thigh (with disappointing results).

Guys, it distinctly says “tickle me” Elmo, not “hand-to-hand combat over me” Elmo.

Nearly as outrageous was the $2,000 some early buyers were reselling their tickle-me toys for on secondhand markets.

The stretchy, leathery ring keeps you hard while the eyelashes tickle the vadge.

"It might tickle him to go to the senate, particularly if he had a score to clean up in connection with it," remarked Ware.

Twas irresistible––to be accomplished with the fool of Twist Tickle and his clever punt.

Thereafter––a hundred paces––I caught sight of the lights of the Twist Tickle meeting-house.

Twas with this hungry curiosity that I demanded of the fool of Twist Tickle how he had managed so great a thing.

I names she from a schooner that calls at Pinch-In Tickle every spring.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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