Word.ws English Dictionary

tickle the ivories

Syllables: tick·le the ivo·riesUK/ˌtikl̩ ðiː ˈaɪv(ə)ɹiz//ˌtik(ə)l ði ˈaɪv(ə)ɹiz/

tickle the ivories verb: to play a piano or other keyboard instrument.

tickle the ivories: to play a piano or other keyboard instrument
Image: Sander van der Wel from Netherlands, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Verb

tickle the ivories (third-person singular simple present tickles the ivories, present participle tickling the ivories, simple past and past participle tickled the ivories)

  1. (informal, intransitive) To play a piano or other keyboard instrument.
    • […] Charles Jarvis, the Philadelphia pianist, […] tickled the ivories with old time unction and gave some of the audience the impression that Philadelphia was really a musical city.1890 December 13, Hans Slack, “Real Music in Baltimore”, in Marc A. Blumenberg, Otto Floersheim, editors, Musical Courier: A Weekly Journal, volume XXI, number 25, New York, N.Y.: Blumenberg &...
    • In music the Company now stands very high. Our singing strength surpasses anything known in the history of the command. It was feared that there would be no one to spar with the piano when Charley Moran left us, but you just ought to see the Leussen brothers tickle the ivories.1900 February, George De C. Curtis, The Seventh Regiment Gazette: An Illustrated Magazine Devoted to the Interests of the Seventh Regiment and the National Guard, volume XIV, number 4, New York...

Forms of tickle the ivories

third-person singular presenttickles the ivories
present participletickling the ivories
past participletickled the ivories
pasttickled the ivories
alternative formtickle the ivory
alternative formtickle the ivory keys
alternative formtinkle the ivories

Origin of tickle the ivories

From tickle (“to touch (something) lightly”) + the + ivories (“(informal) keys of a piano or other keyboard instrument”) (from the fact that such keys used to be made from ivory).

Questions about tickle the ivories

What does tickle the ivories mean?
Tickle the ivories means to play a piano or other keyboard instrument.
What part of speech is tickle the ivories?
Tickle the ivories is a verb.
How do you pronounce tickle the ivories?
Tickle the ivories is pronounced /ˌtikl̩ ðiː ˈaɪv(ə)ɹiz/ (UK).
What is the past tense of tickle the ivories?
The past tense of tickle the ivories is tickled the ivories.

Words near tickle the ivories in the dictionary

  1. tickle someone's fancy
  2. tickle someone's funny bone
  3. tickle someone's pickle
  4. tickle the dragon's tail
  5. tickle the ear
  6. tickle the ivories
  7. tickle the ivory
  8. tickle the sausage
  9. tickle the wire
  10. tickle-footed
  11. tickleace

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tickle the ivories (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-tickle the ivories.wav, En-au-tickle the ivories.ogg.

Cite this entry: “tickle the ivories.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tickle_the_ivories. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.