tickle
- 01 B1 Intermediate
v.to touch someone lightly on a sensitive part of their body to make them laugh or twitch.
v.to touch a person or animal lightly in a sensitive area, typically inducing involuntary laughter or spasmodic movement.
Simple“The children were laughing loudly because their father was tickling their feet.”
In context“The toddler collapsed into fits of giggles as his mother began to tickle his ribs during their morning play session.”
UsageUsually transitive, requiring a direct object representing the person or body part.
Synonymstitillate - 02 B2 Upper Intermediate
v.to have a light, tingling, or itchy feeling on your skin or in your throat.
v.to experience a tingling or mildly irritating sensation on the skin or a mucous membrane.
Simple“My throat started to tickle, and I knew I was about to cough.”
In context“A stray blade of grass began to tickle his ankle, distracting him from the book he was trying to read.”
UsageOften used intransitively to describe a sensation.
- 03 B2 Upper Intermediate
v.to make someone feel amused or to interest them.
v.to please, amuse, or gratify someone's curiosity or sense of humour.
Simple“The idea of moving to a tropical island really tickled his fancy.”
In context“The comedian's dry wit seemed to tickle the audience, though the critics remained largely unimpressed by the performance.”
Teacher's tipCommonly found in the idiom 'tickle someone's fancy', meaning to appeal to someone's taste or imagination.
- 04 B1 Intermediate
n.the act of tickling someone, or the feeling you get when you are tickled.
n.an instance of tickling or the resulting tingling sensation.
Simple“She felt a slight tickle in her nose just before she sneezed.”
In context“The persistent tickle at the back of his throat suggested that the dusty archives were affecting his allergies.”
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.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.