tickle

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

Middle English tikelen, related to Old English tinclian (“to tickle”). Cognate with North Frisian "tigele" (Hallig dialect), and "tiikle" (Amrum dialect).

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪkəl

Noun

tickle (plural tickles)

1. The act of tickling.
2. A feeling resembling the result of tickling.

   I have a persistent tickle in my throat.

3. (Newfoundland) A narrow strait.
   • 2004, Richard Fortey, The Earth, Folio Society 2011, p. 169:

     Cow Head itself is a prominent headland connected to the settlement by a natural causeway, or ‘tickle’ as the Newfoundlanders prefer it.

Verb

tickle (third-person singular simple present tickles, present participle tickling, simple past and past participle tickled)

1. (transitive) To touch repeatedly or stroke delicately in a manner which causes the recipient to feel a usually pleasant sensation of tingling or titillation.

   He tickled Nancy's tummy, and she started to giggle.

2. (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!

3. (transitive) To appeal to someone's taste, curiosity etc.
4. (transitive) To cause delight or amusement.

   He was tickled to receive such a wonderful gift.

Quotations

• For usage examples of this term, see the citations page.

Derived terms

terms derived from the verb "tickle"

tickle someone's fancy tickle the ivories tickle pink

tickler ticklish tickly

Translations

to touch in a manner that causes tingling sensation

• Chinese:

  Gan: 扱 (shit 6)

  Mandarin: 胳肢 (cmn) (gézhi)

• Czech: lechtat (cs)
• Danish: kilde (da)
• Dutch: kietelen (nl), kriebelen (nl)
• Esperanto: tikli (eo)
• Faroese: kitla (fo)
• Finnish: kutittaa (fi)
• French: chatouiller (fr)
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: kitzeln (de)
• Greek: γαργαλώ (el) (gargalo), γαργαλάω (el) (gargalao)

  Ancient: γαργαλίζω (gargalizo)

• Hebrew: דגדג (he) (digdeg)
• Hindi: गुदगुदाना (hi) (gudgudānā)
• Icelandic: kitla (is)
• Italian: solleticare (it), titillare (it)
• Japanese: くすぐる (ja) (kusuguru)

• Jèrriais: catouoilli
• Latgalian: kitynuot
• Latvian: kutināt (lv)
• Maori: whakatongene (mi)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: kile (nb)

  Nynorsk: kitle (nn)

• Polish: łaskotać (pl)
• Portuguese: fazer cócegas (pt), titilar (pt)
• Quechua: kullay (qu)
• Romanian: gâdila (ro)
• Russian: щекотать (ru) (ščekotát’) impf., пощекотать (ru) (poščekotát’) pf.
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: голицати (sh)

  Roman: golicati (sh)

• Sicilian: cadugghiari (scn)
• Slovak: štekliť (sk)
• Spanish: hacer cosquillas (es)
• Swedish: kittla (sv)
• Urdu: گدگدانا (ur) (gudgudānā)

to feel as if being tickled

• Finnish: kutista (fi), kutiaa (fi)

to appeal to someone's taste, curiosity etc.

• Finnish: kiinnostaa (fi)

to cause delight or amusement

• Finnish: jännittää (fi), innostaa (fi)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Georgian: ღიტინი (ka) (ḡitini), ღუტუნი (ka) (ḡutuni), გართობა (ka) (gart’oba), გამხიარულება (ka) (gamxiaruleba)

Adjective

tickle (comparative more tickle, superlative most tickle)

1. Changeable, capricious; insecure.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.4:

     So ticle be the termes of mortall state, / And full of subtile sophismes, which do play / With double senses, and with false debate [...].

Anagrams

• Keltic