ticklish
/ˈtɪk(ə)lɪʃ/
ticklish adjective: sensitive or susceptible to being tickled.
Adjective
ticklish (comparative more ticklish, superlative most ticklish)
- Sensitive or susceptible to being tickled.
- She is ticklish only on her tummy and the bottoms of her feet.
- Touchy, sensitive, or delicate.
- That was the funeral oration of one friend and client; and he could not help a certain apprehension lest the good name of another should be sucked down in the eddy of the scandal. It was, at least, a ticklish decision that he had to make; and self-reliant as he was by habit, he began to cherish a...1886, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 5, in Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
- Opening round three, Enderby moved the ticklish issue of whether to advise the Hong Kong government of the intelligence regarding Ko.1977, John Le Carré, The Honourable Schoolboy, Folio Society, published 2010, page 162
ticklish meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam and Tagalog
ticklish in Tamil
- கூச்சம் விளைவிக்கின்ற, அருநுட்பம் வாய்ந்த, கவனமாக கையாளப்பட வேண்டிய, கவனமாகக் கையாள வேண்டிய
ticklish in Urdu
- مہربان, متردد, نازک
ticklish in Malayalam
- problematic, difficult, tricky
- വിഷമപ്രശ്നമായ, വളരെ സൂക്ഷിച്ചു നിർണ്ണയം ചെയ്യേണ്ടതായ, പ്രയാസകരമായ, കഠിനമായ, ദുഷ്കരമായ, അസുഖകരമായ
ticklish in Tagalog
- sensitive or susceptible to tickling
- maligawgaw
Examples of ticklish in a sentence
- It was, at least, a ticklish decision that he had to make; and self-reliant as he was by habit, he began to cherish a longing for advice.1886, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 5, in Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde:
- The official given this ticklish task managed to survive several drafts, finally producing one that pleased his master as it omitted the dead nephew's reign altogether.2014 September 15, Martin Gayford, “There's more to Ming than a vase [print version: 16 August 2014, pp. R6–R7]”, in The Daily Telegraph...
Forms of ticklish
| comparative | more ticklish |
|---|---|
| superlative | most ticklish |
Origin of ticklish
From tickle + -ish.
Words formed from ticklish
Questions about ticklish
- What does ticklish mean?
- Ticklish means sensitive or susceptible to being tickled.
- What is ticklish in Tamil?
- Ticklish in Tamil is கூச்சம் விளைவிக்கின்ற, அருநுட்பம் வாய்ந்த, கவனமாக கையாளப்பட வேண்டிய. See Ticklish meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use ticklish in a sentence?
- It was, at least, a ticklish decision that he had to make; and self-reliant as he was by habit, he began to cherish a longing for advice.
- What part of speech is ticklish?
- Ticklish is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce ticklish?
- Ticklish is pronounced /ˈtɪk(ə)lɪʃ/ (UK).
Words near ticklish in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ticklish (page history and authors); ticklish (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ticklish (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ticklish (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). 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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-ticklish.wav.
Cite this entry: “ticklish.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ticklish. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.