Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Tickle

Tic′kle (tĭk′k'l), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Tickled; p. pr. & vb. n. Tickling.] [Perhaps freq. of tick to beat; pat; but cf. also AS. citelian to tickle, D. kittelen, G. kitzlen, OHG. chizzilōn, chuzzilōn, Icel. kitla. Cf. Kittle, v. t.] 1. To touch lightly, so as to produce a peculiar thrilling sensation, which commonly causes laughter, and a kind of spasm which become dengerous if too long protracted.

If you tickle us, do we not laugh? Shak.

2. To please; to gratify; to make joyous.

Pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw. Pope.

Such a nature Tickled with good success, disdains the shadow Which he treads on at noon. Shak.

Tic′kle, v. i. 1. To feel titillation.

He with secret joy therefore Did tickle inwardly in every vein. Spenser.

2. To excite the sensation of titillation. Shak.

Tic′kle, a. 1. Ticklish; easily tickled. [Obs.]

2. Liable to change; uncertain; inconstant. [Obs.]

The world is now full tickle, sikerly. Chaucer.

So tickle is the state of earthy things. Spenser.

3. Wavering, or liable to waver and fall at the slightest touch; unstable; easily overthrown. [Obs.]

Thy head stands so tickle on thy shoulders, that a milkmaid, if she be in love, may sigh it off. Shak.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.