Word.ws English Dictionary

lickety-split

lickety-split adverb: quickly; as fast as possible; in short order.

Adverb

lickety-split (not comparable)

  1. Quickly; as fast as possible; in short order.
    • At the sound of the starting gun, they were off and running lickety-split.
    • I need tea right now, lickety-split.

lickety-split meaning in Tamil

lickety-split in Tamil

மிக விரைவாக

Forms of lickety-split

alternative formlickedy-split

Origin of lickety-split

First attested during the 19th century, in the US, equivalent to lickedy + split, perhaps as a reference to the flick or darting of a snake's forked tongue. The forms lickety-cut and licketie are similarly attested; and forms with t are likely due to Scottish influence.

Questions about lickety-split

What does lickety-split mean?
Lickety-split means quickly; as fast as possible; in short order.
What is lickety-split in Tamil?
Lickety-split in Tamil is மிக விரைவாக. See Lickety-split meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is lickety-split?
Lickety-split is an adverb.

Words near lickety-split in the dictionary

  1. lickest
  2. licketh
  3. licketty
  4. lickety
  5. lickety-spit
  6. lickety-split
  7. Lickey
  8. Lickey and Blackwell
  9. Lickfold
  10. lickier
  11. lickiest

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lickety-split (page history and authors); lickety-split (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-lickety-split.ogg.

Cite this entry: “lickety-split.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lickety-split. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.