lick
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /lɪk/
rhymes: -ɪk
Forms: form: licks
Etymology: From Middle English likken, from Old English liccian, from Proto-West Germanic *likkōn, from Proto-Germanic *likkōną, from Proto-Indo-European *leyǵʰ- (“to lick”). Sense evolution towards violence unclear; not paralleled in any other Germanic language.
See also Saterland Frisian likje, Dutch likken, German lecken; also Old Irish ligid, Latin lingō (“lick”), ligguriō (“to lap, lick up”), Lithuanian laižyti, Old Church Slavonic лизати (lizati), Ancient Greek λείχω (leíkhō), Old Armenian լիզեմ (lizem), Persian لیسیدن (lisidan), Sanskrit लेढि (léḍhi), रेढि (réḍhi).
Senses: examples: text: The cat gave its fur a lick.
glosses: The act of licking; a stroke of the tongue.
examples: text: Give me a lick of ice cream.
glosses: The amount of some substance obtainable with a single lick.
examples: text: a lick of paint
text: to put on colours with a lick of the brush
text: When ſly Jemmy Twitcher had ſmugg'd up his face / With a lick of court white waſh,
ref: 1774, Thomas Gray, “The Candidate”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), Strawberry Hill Press:
glosses: A quick and careless application of anything, as if by a stroke of the tongue.
examples: text: The birds gathered at the clay lick.
glosses: A place where animals lick minerals from the ground.
examples: text: We used to play in the lick.
glosses: A small watercourse or ephemeral stream. It ranks between a rill and a stream.
examples: text: Hit that wedge a good lick with the sledgehammer.
text: I went in big licks, and, although it was a good-sized pile, I chopped it all up before he got back at night.
ref: 1891, Cecil Roberts, Adrift in America: Or, Work and Adventure in the States, page 148:
text: Who gave you your worst licks and why?
ref: 2013 April 12, “Exclusive: Meet Derpuntae - Bermuda's first meme”, in The Bermuda Sun, archived from the original on 12 Dec 2022:
glosses: A stroke or blow.
examples: text: You don't have a lick of sense.
text: I didn't do a lick of work today.
text: Allen Gregory DeLongpre: Why don't I call Jean-Michel at Il Portofino? We'll get a table outside? Ooh, I'm not getting a lick of service. Babe, can I hop on your landline?
ref: 2011 Allen Gregory, "Pilot" (season 1, episode 1)
synonyms: word: ace
word: tinge
word: atom
word: trace element
word: aught
word: bissel
word: bit
word: crumb
word: glimpse
word: dab
word: damn
word: dash
word: diddly
word: glint
word: dot
word: spatter
word: drop
word: dusting
word: fleck
word: hint
word: flip
word: flyspeck
word: grain
word: halfpennyworth
word: inch
word: iota
word: jot
word: lick
word: mite
word: modicum
word: molecule
word: morceau
word: morsel
word: mote
word: ooch
word: ounce
word: particle
word: pennyworth
word: piece
word: pinch
word: scantling
word: semblance
word: scent
word: scintilla
word: scooch
word: scrap
word: scruple
word: shred
word: skerrick
word: skoosh
word: skosh
word: sliver
word: smattering
word: smidge
word: smidgen
word: smidget
word: smidgy
word: smitch
word: smithereen
word: soupçon
word: spark
word: speck
word: speckle
word: spot
word: sprinkle
word: sprinkling
word: strain
word: tad
word: tidbit
word: tidge
word: tittle
word: toddick
word: touch
word: trace
word: trifle
word: tuppence worth
word: vestige
word: whiff
word: whit
glosses: A small amount; a whit.
raw_tags: in the negative
examples: text: Well, my album did well, but "Ruby" was a timely song and that wasn't the time for it to step out. […] Then Waylon Jennings took a lick at it on an album, and my old buddy Roger Miller covered it, too, in his album. And although they're outstanding artists, nothing much happened with the song.
ref: 1984, Mel Tillis, Walter Wager, Stutterin' Boy, page 170:
glosses: An attempt at something.
examples: text: There are some really good blues licks in this solo.
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: A short motif.
examples: text: The bus was travelling at a good lick when it swerved and left the road.
text: Dandy Marx, a perfect gentleman in the true sense of the word, now drives forth under single harness ; whereas “once upon a time,” he rushed over the ground at a “big lick,” reigning his four beautiful roans, and continually kicking up an extra excitement among the “fashionables.”
ref: 1852, John Denison Vose, Fresh Leaves from the Diary of a Broadway Dandy, page 109:
glosses: A rate of speed. (Always qualified by good, fair, or a similar adjective.)
examples: text: You up for a lick tonight?
glosses: An act of cunnilingus.
Derived terms: a lick and a promise
a lick of
big lick
calflick
cat-lick
cow lick
cowlick
deerlick
devious lick
Elk Lick
facelick
French Lick
good lick
lickability
lickable
lick and a promise
lick-box
lick-dish
lick log
lick of paint
lick of the tarbrush
lick-platter
licksome
lick-spigot
lick-spittle
lick spout
lick-trencher
lick-wimble
midlick
mineral lick
salt lick
The Lick