kittle
Americanverb (used with object)
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to tickle with the fingers; agitate or stir, as with a spoon.
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to excite or rouse (a person), especially by flattery or strong words.
adjective
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ticklish; fidgety.
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requiring skill or caution; precarious.
adjective
verb
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to be troublesome or puzzling to (someone)
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to tickle
Etymology
Origin of kittle
First recorded in 1475–85; earlier kytylle, ketil (compare Middle English verbal noun kitilling, kitlinge “tickling” late Old English citelung, kitelung ); cognate with Middle High German kützeln; akin to Old Norse kitla, German kitzeln “to tickle”
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.
Somethin caught his interest an he turned round and afore you could say jackrobinson he backed up and sot right down in the kittle.
From Time Magazine Archive
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I still got our old copper kittle an she's 30 gallons if she's a spoon-full.
From Time Magazine Archive
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Pretty soon he woke up the third time, and says he: 'Well, if here ain't that old kittle again!
From The Land of Long Ago by Hall, Eliza Calvert
I think the sensitive fingers of these billiard players helped them to get the touch of these livelier balls which were so "kittle" for the approach and putting.
From Fifty Years of Golf by Hutchinson, Horace G.
Here's the kittle, and here's the tea, in a bloo' paper; and here's the teapot; and here's two cups; and here's a bottle of milk and some sugar.
From Miser Farebrother, Volume I (of 3) A Novel by Farjeon, Benjamin Leopold
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.