Now dial. and chiefly Sc. Forms: (1 vbl. sb. kitelung, 4 vbl. sb. kitlynge), 5 kytill, -ylle, (? kitell, ketil), 6 kyttyl(l, -il, kittil(l, kitill, (3rd sing. kytlis, vbl. sb. kitling), 7– kittle. [ME. kytylle, kityll; cf. late OE. sb. kitelung, ME. kitlynge; cognate with OS. kitilôn (MDu. kitelen, kittelen, ketelen, Du. kittelen, kietelen), OHG. chizzilôn, chuzzilôn (MHG. kitzeln, kütz-, mod.G. kitzeln), ON. kitla (Sw. kittla); not known outside Teutonic, and generally supposed to be of onomatopæic origin, with a double form in kit- and kut-.

1

  The history of the word in English is not clear. The verb itself is not found before the date of the Catholicon, 1483; and it is now used dialectally from Scotland to East Anglia. Hence it might, as well as the sb. kitlynge in Hampole, c. 1340, be of Norse origin. But the sb. kitelung occurring once in a late OE. gloss (c. 1000), naturally suggests an OE. sb. *kitelian, which could only stand for *cytelian, parallel to the OHG. form in chu-. An original OE. *citelian = OS. citilôn, would not have been written with k, and would have given ME. *chittle. It thus remains uncertain whether kittle, the date and locality of which are consistent with Norse derivation, is of Scandinavian or OE. origin.]

2

  1.  trans. To tickle (in physical sense).

3

c. 1000.  [see KITTLING].

4

1483.  Cath. Angl., 204/2. To kytylle, titillare.

5

1483.  Caxton, Gold. Leg., 265/2. She … felt hym and ketild hym.

6

1564.  Sir J. Melvil, Mem. (Bann. Club, 1827), 120. Sche culd not refrain from putting hir hand in his nek to kittle him.

7

c. 1575.  Balfour’s Practicks (1754), 509. Gif … the band quhairwith thay ar bund tuich or kittle his sair bak.

8

1683.  Kennett, trans. Erasm. on Folly, 22. How a man must hug, and dandle, and kittle … his bed-fellow.

9

1822.  Galt, Steam-boat, x. 250. Kittling him in the ribs with his fore-finger.

10

a. 1825.  Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Kittle, to tickle.

11

1855.  Robinson, Whitby Gloss., To kittle, to tickle.

12

  b.  transf. Used of actions humorously or ironically likened to tickling, as the friction of the strings of a fiddle with a bow, a stab with a weapon, etc.

13

1785.  Burns, To W. Simpson, v. I kittle up my rustic reed.

14

1814.  Scott, Wav., xxix. ‘Her ain sell,’ replied Callum, ‘could … kittle his quarters wi’ her skene-occle.’

15

1820.  Blackw. Mag., July, 386/1. I wad kittle the purse-proud carles under the fifth rib wi’ the bit cauld steel.

16

1824.  Scott, Redgauntlet, Let. x. The best fiddler that ever kittled thairm with horse-hair.

17

1828.  Craven Dial., s.v., ‘To kittle the fire,’ to stir it.

18

  2.  fig. To stir with feeling or emotion, usually pleasurable; to excite, rouse; to ‘tickle.’

19

a. 1340.  [see KITTLING].

20

1513.  Douglas, Æneis, V. xiv. 2. Glaidnes and confort … Begouth to kittill Eneas thochtfull hart. Ibid., XII. Prol. 229. Quhen new curage kytlis all gentill hartis.

21

1534.  Hacket, Lett. to Hen. VIII., in St. Papers, VII. 556. Able to cawse the Kyng of Denmark to kyttyll Inglonde with out any infrangyng of peace betwix the Emperour and Your Hyghnys.

22

1725.  Ramsay, Gentle Sheph., II. i. I’ve gather’d news will kittle your heart wi’ joy.

23

1819.  Scott, Br. Lamm., xiii. He kittles the lugs o’ silly auld wife wi’ useless clavers.

24

1873.  A. G. Murdoch, Lilts on Doric Lyre, 97 (E. D. D.).

        The corn riggs kittle the farmer’s e’e—
The fisherman aye thinks weel o’ the sea.

25

  3.  To puzzle with a question, a riddle, etc.

26

1824.  Scott, St. Ronan’s, xv. To kittle the clergymen with doubtful points of controversy. Ibid. (a. 1832), in Lockhart’s Scott (1839), VII. 195. [To a remark … that he seemed to know something of the words of every song … he replied] I daresay it wad be gay ill to kittle me in a Scots one at any rate.

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