tickle
to touch or stroke lightly with the fingers, a feather, etc., so as to excite a tingling or itching sensation in; titillate.
to poke some sensitive part of the body so as to excite spasmodic laughter.
to excite agreeably; gratify: to tickle someone's vanity.
to excite amusement in: The clown's antics really tickled the kids.
to get, move, etc., by or as by tickling: She tickled him into saying yes.
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!
to be affected with a tingling or itching sensation, as from light touches or strokes: I tickle all over.
to produce such a sensation.
an act or instance of tickling.
a tickling sensation.
Idioms about tickle
tickled pink, Informal. greatly pleased: She was tickled pink that he had remembered her birthday.
Origin of tickle
1Other words for tickle
Other words from tickle
- un·tick·led, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use tickle in a sentence
Somewhere in the Afterlife, Laurence Sterne must have been tickled to see his fiendish book infused with new life.
Crazy Cartography: Artists and Writers Conjure a Slew of Imaginative Maps | Lauren Elkin | April 13, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTThe one thing that may have tickled them more was when Mitch McConnell showed up on stage brandishing a rifle.
He was just tickled and amused by the situation, punky and very funny.
NCIS’s 11th Anniversary: Michael Weatherly’s Top 10 Moments | Michael Weatherly | September 23, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTSteel balls caromed around the table as the player massaged, tickled, pressed, and slammed the flipper buttons.
Paris Cafes Lose Their Pinball Machines, as Numbers Dwindle | Solène Cressant | July 13, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTThis potential use seems to have tickled the imaginations of many, many bitcoin fanciers.
It stood on a sandy road, and a cold wind tickled his knickerbockered legs.
Kipling Stories and Poems Every Child Should Know, Book II | Rudyard Kipling"I've told Judy to bemember," said Punch, wiggling, for his father's beard tickled his neck.
Kipling Stories and Poems Every Child Should Know, Book II | Rudyard KiplingI'd be tickled to have the hull town come out an' see me cuttin' figger eight's in the clouds.
Motor Matt's "Century" Run | Stanley R. MatthewsBut I could make it a sight better 'n it is an' it might grow plenty of them posies Dorothy's so tickled with.
Dorothy at Skyrie | Evelyn RaymondThis tribute to their feelings so tickled the women that they set down their tea-cups and laughed prodigiously.
The Garret and the Garden | R.M. Ballantyne
British Dictionary definitions for tickle
/ (ˈtɪkəl) /
to touch, stroke, or poke (a person, part of the body, etc) so as to produce pleasure, laughter, or a twitching sensation
(tr) to excite pleasurably; gratify
(tr) to delight or entertain (often in the phrase tickle one's fancy)
(intr) to itch or tingle
(tr) to catch (a fish, esp a trout) by grasping it with the hands and gently moving the fingers into its gills
tickle pink or tickle to death informal to please greatly: he was tickled pink to be elected president
a sensation of light stroking or itching
the act of tickling
Canadian (in the Atlantic Provinces) a narrow strait
Origin of tickle
1Derived forms of tickle
- tickly, adjective
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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