Also 7 klick. [Goes with CLICK v.1, q.v.; cf. also Du. and Ger. klick; OF. clique the ‘tick’ of a clock or watch.]
1. A slight, sharp, hard, non-ringing sound of concussion, thinner than a clack, such as is made by the dropping of a latch, the cocking of a gun, etc.
1611. Cotgr., Niquet, a knick, klick, snap with the teeth or fingers.
1772–84. Cook, Voy. (1790), I. 241. When they cocked their firelocks, he [exclaimed] … ‘That all the locks made but one click.’
1788. J. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Peter to Tom, Wks. 1812, I. 531. Whose fob … Was quite a stranger to a Watch’s click.
a. 1845. Hood, Tale Trumpet, xiv. The click of the lifted latch.
1873. G. C. Davies, Mount. & Mere, xiv. 115. Listening to the click of the stonechat perched on a boulder near us.
1889. Froude, Two Chiefs of Dunboy, xxvii. 414. A significant click caught the ear of both the speakers. Looking round, they saw Sylvester had cocked a pistol.
2. Mech. A piece of mechanism that makes this noise in acting; esp. a. the catch or detent that falls into the notches of a ratchet-wheel, and so prevents it from turning backwards; b. the catch for a lock or bolt, a latch (cf. CLICKET).
1758. Fitzgerald, in Phil. Trans., L. 728. The click fixed on the frame stops the larger rochet.
1819. Rees, Cycl., s.v. Lock (L.), The third part of the lock is the tumbler, which is a catch or click holding the bolt from being withdrawn.
1822. Imison, Sc. & Art (ed. Webster), I. 85. The click suffers the ratchet wheel to pass.
3. A defect in a horse’s action, causing the toe of the hind hoof to strike the shoe of the fore foot. Also fig.
1886. Pall Mall Gaz., 10 Dec., 4/1. When Ministers are riding the high horse of strict legality, such a discovery as this of Sligo is a serious click in their gallop indeed.
4. Zool. A name for the beetles of the family Elateridæ, from the clicking sound with which they spring upward when they have fallen on their backs. Also click-beetle.
1848. Hardy, in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, II. No. 6. 327. They often fall on their backs, from which position they escape by a mechanism … which … causes them to rise with a jerk, accompanied with a snapping noise, whence they have been named ‘clicks,’ or ‘spring-jacks.’
1881. Whitehead, Hops, 48. The wireworm, the larva of an insect known familiarly as the click beetle.
5. A class of articulations occurring in certain languages of S. Africa, consisting of sharp non-vocal sounds formed by suction, with the sudden withdrawal of the tongue from the part of the mouth with which it is in contact. Also CLUCK.
1857. Livingstone, Trav., vi. 115. The Bamepela have adopted a click into their dialect.
1883. R. N. Cust, Mod. Lang. Africa, II. xii. 300. It is generally … supposed that the Clicks found in the Zulu Language have been adopted from their neighbours the Hottentots.
1884. Sat. Rev., 14 June, 786/1. The Bushmen languages can show eight clicks, the Hottentots four, and the Zulu-Kaffir three.
6. A smart, sudden blow, rap, or jerk, such as causes or suggests the sound described in sense 1.
1847–78. Halliwell, Click, a blow. East.
1874. Slang Dict., Click, a knock or blow.
1880. W. Cornwall Gloss. (E. D. S.), s.v., I’ll gi’ ’ee a click under the ear.
7. attrib. and in Comb., as click-beetle (see 4); click-iron, the iron detent of a ratchet-wheel (see 2 a); click-pulley, a pulley with a click (2 a) to prevent the sheave from running back; click-wheel, a ratchet-wheel.
1831. J. Holland, Manuf. Metals, I. 91 (Cabinet Cycl.). This chain … contains towards the lower end a click iron.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., Click-pulley, Click-wheel.
8. Hence, or from the verb-stem, various reduplicated expressions for recurring or successive sounds of the click type, Click-clack sb. and v. (dial. click-to-clack, clickety-clack), also applied to chattering or prating. Also Click-click.
1782. Miss Burney, Cecilia (1783), I. iii. 41. The insignificant click-clack of modish conversation.
1808–79. Jamieson, Click-clack, uninterrupted loquacity.
1856. Househ. Words, XIII. 544. The click-clack of lesser engines pumping dry the numerous springs.
1867. Miss Broughton, Cometh up as a Fl., xxxiii. Lady Lancaster click-clacking away at that eternal knitting.
1870. Miss Bridgman, R. Lynne, I. xi. 175. At every stitch ‘click-click’ went the steel pins.
1875. Miss Braddon, Strange World, III. i. 4. To hear the click, click, click of the needle.
1877. E. Peacock, N. W. Linc. Gloss. (E. D. S.), Clickety-clack, the noise made by a person walking in pattens.
1882. Besant, Revolt of Man, vi. (1883), 149. The steady click-click of the loom or spinning-jenny.
