tyke
/taɪk/
tyke noun: a mongrel dog.
Noun (1)
tyke (plural tykes)
- A mongrel dog.
- It was the day of warlocks and apparitions, now happily driven out by the zeal of the General Assembly. Witches pursued their wanchancy calling, bairns were spirited away, young lassies selled their souls to the Evil One, and the Accuser of the Brethren, in the shape of a black tyke, was seen about...1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide
- A small child, especially a cheeky or mischievous one.
- Manipulative little tyke I was.1983, Bill Oddie, Gone Birding, London: Methuen, page 146
- Designating an initiation level of sports competition for young children.
- An uncultured, crude and unrefined or uncouth ill-bred person.
- Why, the inquiry thing, the yellow-dog thing—you wouldn’t think a mangy, native tyke would be allowed to trip up people in the verandah of a magistrate’s court, would you?1900, Joseph Conrad, chapter 5, in Lord Jim
- A person from Yorkshire; a Yorkshireman or Yorkshirewoman.
Proper noun capitalized: Tyke
Tyke
Noun (2) capitalized: Tyke
Tyke (plural Tykes)
- a Yorkshireman or Yorkshirewoman; a Yorkshire person
- someone connected with Barnsley Football Club, as a fan, player, coach, etc.
Synonyms of tyke
Forms of tyke
| plural | tykes |
|---|---|
| alternative form | tike |
| plural | Tykes |
Origin of tyke
From Middle English tike, tyke, from Old Norse tík (“female dog”), from Proto-Germanic *tīkō. Compare Icelandic tík, Faroese tík, and Swedish tik, all meaning “bitch, female dog”.
Perhaps a derogatory nickname from Old Norse tík, 'bitch, female dog' (compare English tyke, Icelandic tík). Less likely to be from Old Norse þýzkr, 'of one's nation' or an Old English cognate (compare German deutsch, Swedish tysk).
Words formed from tyke
Phrases with tyke
Words that rhyme with tyke
Questions about tyke
- What does tyke mean?
- Tyke means a mongrel dog.
- What part of speech is tyke?
- Tyke can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce tyke?
- Tyke is pronounced /taɪk/.
- What is the plural of tyke?
- The plural of tyke is tykes.
Words near tyke in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: tyke (page history and authors); Tyke (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-tyke.ogg.
Cite this entry: “tyke.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tyke. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.