tickle
v.v. to touch someone lightly in a way that makes them laugh or feel a strange, itchy sensation. You often do this to children on their feet or sides.
v. to touch a sensitive part of the body lightly so as to excite the surface nerves and cause involuntary laughter or twitching movements.
The feathers on the duster tickle my nose.
She tried to tickle her little brother's feet to make him stop crying and start laughing.
The tall grass began to tickle his ankles as he waded through the overgrown meadow in search of the lost trail.
From Middle English tiklen, tikelen, of uncertain origin. Perhaps from a frequentative form of Middle English tikken (“to touch lightly”), thus equivalent to tick + -le; or perhaps related to Old English tinclian (“to tickle”). Compare North Frisian tigele (“to tickle”) (Hallig dialect), and tiikle (“to tickle”) (Amrum dialect), German dialectal zicklen (“to excite; stir up”). Alternatively, from a metathetic alteration of Middle English kitelen ("to tickle"; see kittle). Both are ultimately sound-symbolic.
The verb is transitive and usually takes a person or a specific body part as its direct object.