Word.ws English Dictionary

take a licking

take a licking verb: to suffer a defeat or a beating.

Verb

take a licking (third-person singular simple present takes a licking, present participle taking a licking, simple past took a licking, past participle taken a licking)

  1. (slang) To suffer a defeat or a beating.

Forms of take a licking

third-person singular presenttakes a licking
present participletaking a licking
pasttook a licking
past participletaken a licking

Words formed from take a licking

Questions about take a licking

What does take a licking mean?
Take a licking means to suffer a defeat or a beating.
What part of speech is take a licking?
Take a licking is a verb.
What is the past tense of take a licking?
The past tense of take a licking is took a licking.

Words near take a licking in the dictionary

  1. take a joke
  2. take a knee
  3. take a knife to a gunfight
  4. take a leaf out of someone's book
  5. take a leak
  6. take a licking
  7. take a licking and keep on ticking
  8. take a liking to
  9. take a listen
  10. take a load off
  11. take a long walk off a short pier

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: take a licking (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-take a licking.ogg.

Cite this entry: “take a licking.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/take_a_licking. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.