Forms: 4 tikelle, 4–5 tikl(en, tykel, 4–6 tikel, 4–7 ticle, 5 tykele, tykle, tykyl(l, 5–6 tyckel, 6 tikell, tykell, tickil, tykil, tyckle, tycle, 6–7 tickel, 6– tickle. [Not recorded in OE., which however had tinclian to tickle. Known first after 1300 in form tikelle, side by side with the adj. tykel, tikel: origin and history doubtful. Falk and Torp take it as a freq. deriv. of TICK v.1 to touch lightly, pat. It has also been inferred to be a metathetic form of KITTLE v.1, parallel to Alemannic dial. zicklen, beside Ger. kitzeln to tickle. See Note below.]
I. Intransitive senses.
† 1. To be affected or excited by a pleasantly tingling or thrilling sensation; to be stirred or moved with a thrill of pleasure: said of the heart, lungs, blood, ‘spirits,’ etc., also of the person. Obs.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 113. Þe folk ferly mykelle ageyn him [Stephen] þri ros, & Dauid herte gan tikelle, þat him wex fele fos.
1577–87. Holinshed, Chron. (1808), IV. 378. How the spirits and livelie bloud tickle in our arteries and small veines, in beholding you the light of this realme.
1589. Pasquil’s Ret., 16. I needed no Minstrill to make me merrie, my hart tickled of it selfe.
1591. Spenser, Muiopotmos, 394. Who … with secrete ioy … Did tickle inwardly in euerie vaine.
1624. Heywood, Captives, II. i. I’l … sett my mind downe in so quaint a strayne Shall make her laugh and tickle.
a. 1625. Fletcher, Nice Valour, V. i. Oh, how my lungs do tickle! ha, ha, ha!
1647. H. More, Poems, 172. This pretty sport doth make my heart to tickle With laughter.
† b. Said of the feeling or its cause. Obs. rare.
1579. Tomson, Calvin’s Serm. Tim., 14/2. For so much as … this curiositie tickleth in many braines.
2. To tingle; to itch; also fig. to have an uneasy or impatient desire (usually to do something); to ge eager. Now rare.
This sense was prob. in literal use much earlier, though quots. have not been found.
1542. Udall, Erasm. Apoph., 344. The fyngers of the Athenians ticleed to aid and succour Harpalus.
1557. N. T. (Genev.), Acts xvii. 19, note. People whose eares euer tickled to heare newes.
1591. Savile, Tacitus’ Hist., IV. xliii. 202. The Senatour’s fingers euen tickled against him.
1906. N. Munro, in Blackw. Mag., Dec., 802/2. I fairly tickle to take a walk along.
Mod. My foot tickles.
II. Transitive senses (= L. titillāre).
3. Said of a thing, or impersonally with it: To excite agreeably (a person, his heart, ears, palate, etc.); to give pleasure or amusement to; to please, gratify. To tickle to death: cf. DEATH 12 b.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Wife’s Prol., 471. It tikleth [v.rr. tikeleth, tykelith, ticleþ] me aboute myn herte roote.
1406. Hoccleve, Misrule, 204. So tikelid me þat nyce reuerence þat it me made larger of despense.
1495. Trevisa’s Barth. De P. R., XVIII. i. (W. de W.), Yj/1. By gendrynge hete tyklyth and pryckyth: that falleth moost in spryngynge tyme whan the vertue of ye hete of heuen begynnyþ to haue maystry of bodyes of beestys.
1597. J. Payne, Royal Exch., 7. More for desire of imitation, then of anie intent to tyckle hym with adulation.
1607. Hieron, Wks., I. 166. Well might they … haue their eares ticled with some pleasing noise.
1734. trans. Rollin’s Anc. Hist. (1827), I. II. 210. Eating, in Egypt was designed not to tickle the palate but to satisfy the cravings of nature.
1859. Hawthorne, Fr. & It. Note-bks., II. 233. Something … that thrilled and tickled my heart with a feeling partly sensuous and partly spiritual.
1863. Geo. Eliot, Romola, xxv. Elements that … tickled gossiping curiosity, and fascinated timorous superstition.
4. To touch or stroke lightly with or as with the finger-tips, a straw, a feather, a hair, or the like; to tease, annoy, or irritate lightly, so as to cause a peculiar uneasy sensation. Also said of the thing. Also absol.
c. 1450. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 571/23. Catello, to mewe or to tykele. [Cf. F. chatouiller, OF. catouller to tickle.]
c. 1532. Du Wes, Introd. Fr., in Palsgr., 940. To tickel, catouller.
1566. Blundevil, Horsemanship, IV. lxviii. (1580), 28 b. By eating a feather, or by eating dustie or sharp bearded strawe, and such like things: which tickling his throte causeth him to cough.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., IV. i. 28. If my haire do but tickle me, I must scratch. Ibid. (1596), 1 Hen. IV., II. iv. 340. To tickle our Noses with Speargrasse, to make them bleed.
1704. Norris, Ideal World, II. iii. 239. Who ever thought of anything like pleasure in a feather that tickles his hand?
1710. J. Clarke, Rohault’s Nat. Phil. (1729), I. 174. None of them will be able to prick the Tongue agreeably, but they will only tickle it in a disagreeable manner.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., xxxvi. First, something tickles your right knee, and then the same sensation irritates your left.
b. To touch, or poke (a person) lightly in a sensitive part so as to excite spasmodic laughter. Also absol.
1530. Palsgr., 349. He tykeleth my sydes, il me catoille les costes. Ibid., 758/1. And you tykell me thus I muste nedes laughe, si vous me gattouilles … il mest force de rire.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, III. xxii. (Arb.), 266. Her Maiestie laughed as she had bene tickled.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., III. i. 68. If you tickle vs, doe we not laugh?
1675. Wycherley, Country Wife, IV. iii. I am trying if Mr. Horner were ticklish … I love to torment the confounded toad; let you and I tickle him.
1872. Darwin, Emotions, xiii. 310. We can cause laughing by tickling the skin.
c. Applied to a method of catching trout or other fish: see quot. 1884 s.v. TICKLING vbl. sb. 3 c. Often in allusive use.
1601. Shaks., Twel. N., II. v. 26. Heere comes the Trowt, that must be caught with tickling.
1706–7. Farquhar, Beaux’ Strat., III. ii. He … tickles the trout, and so whips it into his basket.
1745. Pococke, Descr. East, II. II. V. viii. 252. Men go into the water, tickle them on the belly, and so get them ashoar.
1823. Scott, Quentin D., xxx. He spoke of fishing—I have sent him home a trout properly tickled!
1883. G. C. Davies, Norfolk Broads, xxiii. (1884), 177. The mode of tickling tench which at one time was common enough on some of the Broads.
5. fig. To excite amusement in; to divert; often in the phrase to tickle the fancy. Also absol.
a. 1688. Villiers (Dk. Buckhm.), Chances, Prol. There are Fools that tickle with their Face, Your gay Fool tickles with his Dress and Motions.
1771. Smollett, Humph. Cl., 26 June. The young squire, tickled by this ironical observation, exclaimed, ‘O che burla!’
a. 1774. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 129. Whose play had a quality of striking the joyous perception, or, as we vulgarly say, tickling the fancy.
1837. Lockhart, Scott, an. 1816, note. Such … was the story that went the round of the newspapers at the time, and highly tickled Scott’s fancy.
1858. Doran, Crt. Fools, 10. Poor as the joke was, it … tickled the fancy of the Tirynthians.
1871. Blackie, Four Phases, i. 69. Brilliant oratorical displays to tickle and amuse.
1885. Manch. Exam., 16 May, 6/1. Lord Hartington’s slow, quiet, dry answer, ‘No, sir,’ somewhat tickled the House.
b. To puzzle: cf. Sc. to kittle. Sc. dial.
1865. Tester, Poems, 47 (E.D.D.). I’ve got ye out, but it tickles my brain How the deuce I’m to pitch ye in again.
6. To touch (a stringed instrument, etc.) lightly as in tickling a person; to stir (a fire, etc.) slightly.
1589. Nashe, Anat. Absurd., Epist. To tickle a Cittern, or have a sweete stroke on the Lute.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., I. iv. 36. Let wantons light of heart Tickle the sencelesse rushes with their heeles.
1740. Somerville, Hobbinol, I. 143. Hark from aloft his tortur’d Cat-gut squeals, He tickles ev’ry String.
1770. Acc. Bks., in Ann. Reg., 243/2. One of them began to tickle his guittar.
1796. Pegge, Derbicisms (E.D.S.), Tickle the fire.
18[?]. in Daily Chron., 10 Dec. (1902), 9/1. A country whose soil, it has been well said, only requires to be tickled with a hoe to laugh with a harvest.
b. ironically. To beat, chastise.
1592. Warner, Alb. Eng., VIII. xliii. (1612), 207. Whose Knightes, in 2 Richards dayes, so tickeld France and Spaine.
1601. Shaks., Twel. N., V. i. 198. If he had not beene in drinke, hee would haue tickel’d you other gates then he did.
1681. T. Flatman, Heraclitus Ridens, No. 35 (1713), I. 225. Our gracious Queen Elizabeth tickled their Tobies for them, for their Reformation.
1698. J. Crull, Muscovy, 175. They soundly tickle his Back, in the same Manner as we beat the Dust out of Cloaths.
1800. C. K. Sharpe, Corr. (1888), I. 94. These little rogues … should be well tickled with the birch.
1861. Sat. Rev., XII. 199. Hogarth tickles the poor bardling with his pencil.
c. To touch up, trick up; to improve or decorate with light touches.
1845. Thackeray, Crit. Rev., Wks. 1886, XXIII. 238. The picture is … tickled up with a Chinese minuteness. Ibid. (1852), Lett., in Esmond (1900), p. xxxiii. Dolls—painted and tickled up in the most charming way.
† 7. To excite, affect, move; also, to vex, irritate, provoke. Obs.
1547–64. Bauldwin, Mor. Philos. (Palfr.), 116. Some men there be, whom bodily lust tickleth not at all.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Edw. IV., 204. These newes sodaynly brought to the kynge did not a littell vexe & tykil hym.
1593. Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., I. iii. 153. Shee’s tickled now, her Fume needs no spurres.
1693. Dryden, Persius’ Sat., I. 28. I cannot rule my Spleen; My Scorn Rebels, and tickles me within.
1898. Fryer, Acc. E. India & P., 316. What once tickled the Spleen of a Philosopher, might here hourly give him the Diversion.
† b. To arouse by or as by tickling; to stir up, incite, provoke; to prompt or impel to do something.
1532. More, Confut. Tindale, Wks. 551/1. Ye pronity & mocions in the fleshe … whereby we be ticled towarde great actuall deadely sinnes.
1581. Marbeck, Bk. of Notes, 603. When our flesh tickeleth vs to speake, we must resist it.
a. 1592. Greene, Alphonsus, III. Wks. (Rtldg.), 237/1. What foolish toy hath tickled you to this?
c. With up: To stir up, arouse by tickling, excite to action.
1567. Drant, Horace, Epist., xiii. E iv. Such geare, As will embaite our Cesars eye, and tickle vp his eare.
1583. Babington, Commandm., vii. (1637), 67. These things … tickle us up … to the breach of this Commandement.
1642. [Sir J. Spelman], View Observ. H. M. Late Answ., 38. They so tickle up the crasie minds of the multitude.
1674. N. Fairfax, Bulk & Selv., 127. If such a spring as this is, may be tickled and rous’d up again.
1898. Daily News, 25 Nov., 2/2. Why don’t you tickle up Sandys with those spurs?
d. To get or move (a thing) into or out of some place, position, or state, by action likened to tickling.
1677. Gilpin, Demonol. (1867), 389. He endeavours … to tickle Him into a humour of affecting the glory and admiration which [etc.].
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 315/1. When the Butcher is to Blood them and tickle them out of their Lives.
1702. Eng. Theophrast., Pref. 2. Others … have endeavoured to tickle men out of their Follies.
1704. F. Fuller, Med. Gymn. (1711), 88. This is to Cheat People with the Bellaria of Physick, and Tickle Men into the Grave.
1725. Byrom, Lett. to R. L., ix. The cunning old Pug … took Puss’s two Foots, And so out o’ th’ Embers he tickl’d his Nuts.
1904. Westm. Gaz., 28 Dec., 2/2. He slipped from the chair, tickled his toes into his slippers, and threw his shoulders back.
† 8. To tickle it: (?) to bring to an agreeable end; to ensure a satisfactory result. Obs.
1599. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Rev., IV. v. I am sorry the reuels are crost. I should ha’ tickled it soone.
1672. Dryden, Assignation, III. i. Now, I think I have tickled it; this discovery has reinstated me into the Empire of my wit again.
1761. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, III. xx. Bless us!—what noble work we should make!—how should I tickle it off!
9. In various figurative phrases and expressions, mostly with reference to the pleasing effects of tickling. To tickle in the palm, to gratify with a ‘tip.’
1694. Motteux, Rabelais, V. xiii. (1737), 54. We tickled the Men in the Palm.
1706. E. Ward, Wooden World Diss. (1708), 31. The Ale-Wives tickle him in the Gills with the Title of Captain.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., VIII. 755. ’Tis pride, or emptiness, applies the straw That tickles little minds to mirth effuse.
1807–8. W. Irving, Salmag. (1824), 224. This straw tickled the noses of all our dignitaries wonderfully.
1843. Carlyle, Past & Pr., II. viii. Tickle me, Toby, and I’ll tickle thee!
1874. Siliad, IV. 110. But, tickled by a shilling in his palm, [he] Walked on discreetly blind.
1883. Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY), 14 Sept., 3/4. They can tickle ivory and make a pair of grand pianos squeal sweeter than any two men we ever heard.
1901. Scotsman, 4 March, 10/5. An officer … when he gets on a palace-car, he can tickle the porter just as much as he desires at the expense of the Government pocket-book.
10. In combination with a sb.; as † tickle-brain, potent liquor; hence transf. one who supplies it; tickle-grass, name given in U.S. to various grasses, as the hair-grass, Agrostis scabra, the old-witch grass, Panicum capillare (Cent. Dict.); tickle-moth, tickle-pitcher (slang): see quots.; tickle-text (slang), a parson; tickle-toby [cf. quot. 1681 in 6 b, also Motteux Rabelais, IV. xiii], a birch, rod, switch; also, the use of this; tickle-weed, swamp hellebore, Veratrum viride. See also TICKLE-TAIL.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., II. iv. 438. Peace good Pint-pot, peace, good *Tickle-braine.
1639. Davenport, New Tricke, III. i. A Cup of Nipsitate, briske and neate; The Drawers call it Tickle-Braine.
1833. Veg. Subst. Materials of Manuf., ix. 162. A species of grass growing spontaneously in that part of the United States [Connecticut], and popularly known by the name of *tickle-moth.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, *Tickle-pitcher, a Toss-pot, or Pot-companion.
1725. in New Cant. Dict.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. T., Tickle pitcher, a thirsty fellow, a sot. Ibid., *Tickle text, a parson.
1830. Bentham, Corr., Wks. 1843, XI. 37. A touch, every now and then, of the *tickle-Toby, which I keep in pickle for you.
1842. Thackeray (title), Miss Tickletoby’s Lectures.
1909. Daily Chron., 24 July, 3/2. Miss Aurora, who, to the peril of her neck, practises tickle-toby on Brother Gustavus’s bare soles.
1762. Mills, Syst. Pract. Husb., I. 156. Swamp hellebore (known in different places by the several names of skunk-cabbage, *tickle-weed, bear-root).
Hence Tickled ppl. a.
1586. Sidney, Arcadia, III. (1605), 343. A smiling countenance,… mixt betweene a tickled mirth, and a forced pittie.
1647. H. More, Song Soul, II. App. lxvi. His silvered sound would touch our tickled ear.
1880. G. Meredith, Tragic Com. (1881), 11. They encouraged her with the tickled wonder which bids the bold advance yet farther into bogland.
1896. Blackw. Mag., May, 769. No corn or tickled up seed could get them [wild-fowl] up the pipes.
[Note. Derivation from TICK v.1, in sense ‘to touch lightly,’ would, both in form and sense, suit the later use of tickle, but is not favored by the chronology (since tick is not known so early as tickle), nor by the fact that the earliest recorded sense includes no notion of light touching or of the action of any external agent, but merely expresses a bodily sensation. These considerations partly also affect the theory of metathesis from kittle, inasmuch as the latter, exc. in the vbl. sb. kitelung (a. 1100), kitlyng, has not been found before 1440, and is from the first trans., = L. titillare to tickle (some one). But in ON., kitla, like hungra, þyrsta, etc., was an impersonal vb. of primary sensation: mig kitlar ‘it kittles me,’ like mig hungrar ‘it hungers me.’ Traces of this appear also with ‘tickle’: see ‘it tikleth me’ in sense 3. It was natural for an impers. vb. to develop both intrans. and trans. constructions: cf. the senses of IRK v., and the modern it grieves me with I grieve and you grieve me. It seems possible that ONorse kitla was adopted at an early date in some parts of England as kit(e)l-en, kittel-, and in others, under the influence of tick, as tikl-, tikel-, and that the latter became the general Eng. form, while the more original kitl-, kittle, was used farther north, and was thus later in literary record. Neither form appears in Cursor Mundi.]
