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.
See Examples For:
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
I still got our old copper kittle an she's 30 gallons if she's a spoon-full.
From Time Magazine Archive
"Lucy Ann, take that bucket, and fill it with water and fetch that brass kittle in the barn," ordered her father: "that cow ort to be watered."
From The Tobacco Tiller A Tale of the Kentucky Tobacco Fields by Sarah Bell Hackley
It is a long and rather kittle word, but it is the only one that we have.
From Health Five Lay Sermons to Working-People by John Brown
There was a'ways a big kittle a hangin in th' chimbly an' one o' them iron ovens a settin on the hawth.
From Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves: Volume X, Missouri Narratives by United States. Work Projects Administration
Pronounced to rhyme with "shall" only the vowel must be very much prolonged. kittled = tickled. myek = make. gairdle cake = girdle cake, i.e. a cake baked on a griddle.
From The Shanty Book, Part I, Sailor Shanties by Richard Runciman Terry
Bell: What have you heard this fifteen-year, except The bleat of sheep, till Ruth’s voice kittled your ear?
From Krindlesyke by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson
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