[f. as prec. + -ING2.] That tickles, in various senses of the verb; exciting pleasantly, gratifying, alluring; amusing, diverting; delicate, tingling, itching; ticklish.
1558. Phaër, Æneid, I. B iij b. In her brest the tykling ioye her hart to myrth enclynes.
1595. Shaks., John, I. i. 573. That smooth-fac’d Gentleman, tickling commoditie.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1658), 475. The tickling or itching humor, lying betwixt the skin and the flesh, causeth the poor Sheep either to bite the place with his teeth,… or to rub it upon a tree or wall.
1675. Crowne, Country Wit, I. i. Fie upon this tickling rheum!
1681. (title) Some Observations upon the Tickling Querie, viz. Whether the admitting of a Popish Successor be the best way to Preserve the Protestant Religion [etc.].
1761. Pulteney, in Phil. Trans., LII. 346. A little tickling cough which had remained with him.
1863. Geo. Eliot, Romola, ix. Such vague memories hang about the mind like cobwebs, with tickling importunity.
1887. Ruskin, Præterita, II. 30. One evening … a short tickling cough surprised me.
Hence Ticklingly adv., so as to tickle.
1846. Morn. Chron., 13 Jan., 3/3. In the gingling periods of a serio-comic song … we may find thoughts which in a moment drag the mind into one of its most serious thinking moods—which while they fall ticklingly on the ear, stir up at the same instant the depths of the soul.
1898. J. A. Steuart, Minister of State, I. iv. He smacked his lips and laughed again;… the recollections of his aunt’s choler [were] ticklingly comical.
