# tickle
## English
### Etymology

From Middle English tiklen, tikelen, of uncertain origin. Perhaps from a frequentative form of Middle English tikken (“to touch lightly”), thus equivalent to tick +‎ -le; or perhaps related to Old English tinclian (“to tickle”). Compare North Frisian tigele (“to tickle”) (Hallig dialect), and tiikle (“to tickle”) (Amrum dialect), German dialectal zicklen (“to excite; stir up”). Alternatively, from a metathetic alteration of Middle English kitelen ("to tickle"; see kittle).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈtɪkl̩/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɪkəl
* Hyphenation: tick‧le

### Noun

tickle (plural tickles)
* The act of tickling.
* An itchy feeling resembling the result of tickling.
    I have a persistent tickle in my throat.
* (cricket, informal) A light tap of the ball.
** 2016, Ann Waterhouse, Cricket Made Simple:There's a very fine line between a tickle and an edge!
* (Newfoundland) A narrow strait, such as between an island and the shore.
** 1903 April 8, The Syren and Shipping, page 169:Charts and Plans. [...] No. New Charts. 2253 England, and south coast—Dartmouth harbour. [...] 3320 Newfoundland, Thimble tickles and Glover harbour—Head of Seal bay.
** 2004, Richard Fortey, The Earth, Folio Society, published 2011, page 169:Cow Head itself is a prominent headland connected to the settlement by a natural causeway, or ‘tickle’ as the Newfoundlanders prefer it.

#### Translations
### Verb

tickle (third-person singular simple present tickles, present participle tickling, simple past and past participle tickled)
* (transitive) To touch repeatedly or stroke delicately in a manner which typically causes laughter, pleasure and twitching.
    He tickled Nancy's tummy, and she started to giggle.
** c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:If you tickle us, do we not laugh?
* (intransitive, of a body part) To feel as if the body part in question is being tickled.
    My nose tickles, and I'm going to sneeze!
* (transitive) To appeal to someone's taste, curiosity etc.
* (transitive) To cause delight or amusement in.
    He was tickled to receive such a wonderful gift.
** 1733, Alexander Pope, “Epistle II”, in An Essay on Man, lines 275–276; republished in The Complete Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, Boston, New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1902, page 145:Behold the child, by Nature's kindly law, Pleas'd with a rattle, tickled with a straw.
** c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:Such a nature Tickled with good success, disdains the shadow Which he treads on at noon.
* (intransitive) To feel titillation.
** 1591, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], “Muiopotmos, or The Fate of the Butterflie”, in Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie. […], London: […] William Ponsonbie, […], →OCLC:He with secret joy therefore Did tickle inwardly in every vein.
* (transitive) To catch fish in the hand (usually in rivers or smaller streams) by manually stimulating the fins.
* (archaic) To be excited or heartened.

#### Quotations

* For quotations using this term, see Citations:tickle.

#### Synonyms

* kittle

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Adjective

tickle (comparative more tickle, superlative most tickle)
* (obsolete) Changeable, capricious; insecure.
** 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:So ticle be the termes of mortall state, And full of subtile sophismes, which do play With double senses, and with false debate […]

### Adverb

tickle (comparative more tickle, superlative most tickle)
* Insecurely, precariously, unstably.
** c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:Lucio. I warrant it is: And thy head stands so tickle on thy shoulders, that a milke-maid, if she be in loue, may sigh it off: Send after the Duke, and appeale to him.

### Derived terms

* knee ticklers
* rib-tickling
* slap and tickle
* tickle-footed
* tickle pink
* tickler
* tickle someone's fancy
* tickle someone's funny bone
* tickle someone's pickle
* tickle the dragon's tail
* tickle the ear
* tickle the ivories
* tickle the ivory
* tickle the wire
* ticklish
* tickly

### Anagrams

* Keltic