[f. TICKLE v. + -ER1.] One who or that which tickles, in various senses.
1. One who tickles by touching or stroking lightly.
1715. trans. C’tess. D’Aunoy’s Wks., 452. One of those ticklers of Cat-guts that march before the Milk-women upon May-day.
1736. Chesterf., Fog’s Jrnl., No. 377, ¶ 5. If, by chance, there be some few unhappy enough not to find ticklers, or some ticklers clumsy enough not to find business, they comfort themselves at least with self-titillation.
1908. Gazette (Cedar Rapids, IA), 22 Aug., 5/1. ‘Goeck’ is a dream as a tickler of the ivories, and is a source of entertainment for the teams when on the road with them.
2. Something that tickles or is used for tickling.
a. A thing (or person) difficult to deal with or understand; a teaser; a puzzler (colloq.). b. A feather brush used to tickle the face of passers, as a diversion at fairs and carnivals. c. A birch or rod used in castigation; also, a single-stick. d. An instrument used by frame-work knitters for slipping the loops off one needle of the stocking-frame on to another in narrowing or shaping the fabric. e. An instrument for extracting bungs from casks. f. An implement for stirring a fire, a poker. g. In a motor engine, a device by which a small quantity of gasoline is pumped into the carburetor to facilitate the starting of the engine. h. A small measure (about half a pint) of spirits (U.S. colloq.). i. A small knife or pistol carried on the person (U.S. colloq.). j. A memorandum book, or a series of dated cards on which to enter engagements (U.S.).
1680. Cotton, Compl. Gamester (ed. 2), 4. The Knave and Rascal will violate his trust for profit, and lend him … a Tickler shall do his business.
1765. E. Thompson, Meretriciad (ed. 6), 27. The tickler you must use, And as you flog the Vet’rans, flog the Muse.
1808. J. Ballantyne, Lett., in Smiles, Mem. J. Murray (1891), I. v. 108. A review, termed by Mr. Jeffrey a tickler, is to appear.
1825. Jamieson, Tickler, anything puzzling.
1825. Sporting Mag., XV. 349. John now practised often with the ‘ticklers’; nor was it long before he attained the reputation of a noted hand at single stick.
1839. Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl., II. 118/1. A new and important manufacture … in the hosiery trade, in making lace caps from the stocking-frame, by the aid of the jack tickler machine.
1839. Harry Franco, I. 74 (Thornton, Amer. Gloss.). I don’t see that I have got your name down in my tickler.
1840. Haliburton, Clockm., Ser. III. xi. 155. I … have half a mind to give you a tickler in the ribs.
1844. Dickens, Mart. Chuz., xxxiii. A sword-stick, which he called his ‘Tickler’; and a great knife, which … he called ‘Ripper.’
1848. Bartlett, Dict. Amer., Tickler, a common name among merchants and bankers for a book in which a register of notes or debts is kept for reference.
1861. Dickens, Gt. Expect., ii. Tickler was a wax-ended piece of cane, worn smooth by collision with my tickled frame.
1875. Sussex Gloss., Tickler, an iron pin used by brewers to take a bung out of a cask.
1881. Miss Jackson, Shropsh. Word-bk., Tickler, a slender steel rod … used for stirring the fire.
1889. Harper’s Mag., Aug., 388/2. Whiskey … was not usually bought by the drink, but by the tickler … a bottle … holding a half-pint.
1891. T. Anderton, Lett. fr. Country Ho., 237. They poke out the gleeds at the bottom with the tickler, and put them at the top with the tongs.
1892. Labour Commission, Gloss., Ticklers, four small points firmly fixed into a piece of wood which are pressed upon the eyes of the needles and remove the stitches in the hosiery industry. This is the operation of fashioning.
1904. Sat. Rev., 18 June, 784/1. Patriots, who with whisky, rattles, ticklers, Union Jacks and patriotic melody … celebrated the relief [of Mafeking].
1906. Daily Chron., 14 Nov., 9/3. The carburettor can be flooded without lifting the bonnet, by operating a ‘tickler’ situated outside the bonnet.
3. A large American longicorn beetle, Monohammus titillator, with very long antennæ. U.S.
1841–52. T. W. Harris, Insects Injur. Veget., ii. (1862), 105. The largest Capricorn-beetle,… found in New England, is … the tickler, so named probably on account of the habit which it has … of gently touching now and then the surface on which it walks with the tips of its long antennæ.
