licking
Americannoun
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lickings
plural
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Informal.
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a beating or thrashing.
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a reversal or disappointment; defeat or setback.
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the act of a person or thing that licks.
noun
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a beating
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a defeat
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of licking
Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400; see origin at lick, -ing 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
While the conference’s other top teams spent the day licking their wounds, here, once again, was Mosley weaving joyfully through the open field and conjuring the very same magic from thin air.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 13, 2026
And, notably, they eat Cane’s, whether it’s buying entire orders of just Texas toast or dunking their entire hand into a fountain cup of Cane’s Sauce and licking it off their fingers.
From Slate ● Aug. 24, 2026
One key area stands out where England are vulnerable, where elite opponents will be licking their lips at the prospect of facing Tuchel's side.
From BBC ● Jul. 1, 2026
And it isn’t just SpaceX, but also Anthropic and OpenAI and the unceasing chatter and licking of chops over the mind-bending explosion of intergenerational wealth anticipated by their pending IPOs, that gives me pause.
From Barron's ● May 29, 2026
“Is it your skull?” the imp said, licking its lips.
From "Half Upon a Time" by James Riley
After all the investments they had made into her business, she said they were left with the "lickings of a dog" and felt it was "a kick in the teeth".
From BBC ● Jan. 18, 2024
Two years later, at the polls, it took one of the most surprising lickings in U.S. political history.
From Time Magazine Archive
For seven years the League plum has meant rich lickings to the Swiss city of Geneva.
From Time Magazine Archive
The G.O.P. had taken two good lickings in Philadelphia in 1951 and 1952, and was more or less resigned to another.
From Time Magazine Archive
Those lickings we got earlier in the season don't mean anything.
From The Boy Grew Older by Heywood Broun
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