a. [f. TICKLE a. or v. + -ISH1.]
1. Easily tickled; sensitive to tickling.
1598. Florio, Solético, ticklish.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 72. Some part of the skin is … thin, as in the sides and soales of the feete, which is the reason that there men are ticklish.
1685. Boyle, Effects of Mot., v. 53. A ticklish man, by having the pulp of one’s finger passed gently along the sole of his foot,… has divers muscles and other parts of his body and face put into … unusual motions.
1833. Marryat, P. Simple, xix. As for not standing the charge of bayonets, it was not because they were less brave, but the fact was, that they were most excessively ticklish.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 128. A peculiar mental affection, locally known as Latah (a word signifying nervous or ticklish).
† b. Sensitive, easily affected; of a horse: Sensitive to touch; tender. Obs.
168[?]. Lond. Gaz., No. 1589/4. She drags her hinder feet,… cuts a little behind, she is very ticklish on her Crest.
1634. R. Waller, Nat. Exper., 6. After this manner may be had a very ticklish Thermometer.
1716. Lond. Gaz., No. 5415/4. [A mare] with a Malender on her near Fore Leg, and very ticklish to be touch’d on that place.
2. Unstably balanced or poised; easily unbalanced or upset; unsteady; of a boat: easily capsized.
1601. Holland, Pliny (1634), II. 584. The follie of the blind & bold people of Rome went beyond al; who trusted such a ticklish frame, & durst sit there, in a seat so moueable.
1639. Fuller, Holy War, III. v. (1840), 123. So ticklish are the scales of victory, a very mote will turn them.
1687. A. Lovell, trans. Thevenot’s Trav., I. 27. Little slight Boats or Wherries, and so tick’lish that by leaning more to one side than another, it is an easie matter to overset them.
1784. Cowper, Task, III. 550. The ticklish balance of suspense.
1861. Du Chaillu, Equat. Afr., xiv. 234. They are ticklish craft.
b. Of game: Difficult to approach; shy: = TICKLE a. 6 c.
1826. Col. Hawker, Diary (1893), I. 290. He got four wigeon, but found the birds very ticklish. Ibid. (1829), 359. Birds all scattered and ticklish.
3. fig. Easily upset in temper; apt to be offended, sensitive, touchy.
1581. Mulcaster, Positions, xxxvii. (1887), 152. Such parentes as be tikelish, and such scholers as be shifting, removing from maisters and renouncing of obedience.
1634. T. Johnson, Parey’s Wks., 1173. There is not any man so ticklish, which taketh not in good part what I have said.
1794. Gouv. Morris, in Sparks, Life & Writ. (1832), II. 426. Men are very ticklish in such revolutions as the present.
1821. Byron, Lett. to Moore, 16 Nov. You are ticklish on such points.
4. Unstable, unsteady, unsettled, uncertain, fickle.
1606. in Gardiner, Hist. Eng., I. 408, note. Considering … how ticklish their disposition is towards the State.
a. 1661. Fuller, Worthies (1840), III. 265. But foreign friendship is ticklish, temporary, and lasteth no longer than it is advantaged with mutual interest.
1693. South, Serm., 99. Uncertain ticklish and variable.
1770–4. A. Hunter, Georg. Ess. (1803), III. 514. Resisting the effects of bad weather in ticklish hay seasons.
1847. Ld. Palmerston, Lett., 5 Feb., in Bulwer, Life (1874), III. 337. A throne whose stability rests on the point of the bayonet has a very ticklish and uncertain basis.
5. Liable to end in disaster unless treated with great care; needing cautious handling or action; delicate, critical, precarious, risky, hazardous.
1591. Savile, Tacitus’ Hist., I. lxxxv. 48. To beare a man’s selfe euenly in so nice and ticklish a case.
1600. Holland, Livy, III. lxv. 133. So ticklish and dangerous a thing it is to keepe a meane in maintenance of libertie.
1666. W. Boghurst, Loimographia (1894), 81. This is a very ticklish disease, and the least error committed turnes a man out of dores.
1674. N. Fairfax, Bulk & Selv., To Rdr. ’Tis a more ticklish thing to pen a Preface, than ’tis to write a Book.
1711. Swift, Lett. (1767), III. 195. ’Tis a plaguy ticklish piece of work, and a man hazards losing both sides.
1775. J. Jekyll, Corr., 30 May. Her rash, which perhaps was a critical symptom in her ticklish constitution.
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas, XII. i. (Rtldg.), 423. A very ticklish predicament.
1899. F. T. Bullen, Log Sea-waif, 27. This is a ticklish evolution to perform successfully in a crowded anchorage.
6. quasi-adv. Ticklishly; in a ticklish or easily moved state; unsteadily; delicately. Now rare.
1661. R. Baillie, in Lauderdale Papers (Camden), I. 95. I think you stand tiklish.
1771. Luckombe, Hist. Print., 318. The upper sides of these Ribs must … be somewhat arching … then the Cramp-Irons run more easily and ticklish over them.
1775. T. Hutchinson, Diary, 24 Oct. Mr. Gibbon … says the Minister who proposed them stands ticklish.
7. Comb., as ticklish-tempered.
1897. Mary Kingsley, W. Africa, 651. Ticklish-tempered native gentlemen.
