vellicate
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to pluck; twitch.
-
to nip, pinch, or the like.
-
to cause to twitch.
verb (used without object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of vellicate
1595–1605; < Latin vellicātus, past participle of vellicāre, frequentative of vellere to pull, twitch; see -ate 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:
A cough, said he, is "a convulsion of the lungs, vellicated by some sharp serosity," and a network is "anything reticulated or decussated, at equal distances, with interstices between the intersections."
From Time Magazine Archive
Xenocles affirmed, that ripe fruit had usually a pleasing, vellicating sapor, and thereby provoked the appetite better than sauces or sweetmeats; for sick men of a vitiated stomach usually recover it by eating fruit.
From Complete Works of Plutarch — Volume 3: Essays and Miscellanies by Plutarch
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.
