What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Amuse vs Tickle - What's the difference?

amuse | tickle |

In transitive terms the difference between amuse and tickle

is that amuse is to entertain or occupy in a pleasant manner; to stir with pleasing emotions while tickle is to cause delight or amusement in.

As a noun tickle is

the act of tickling.

As an adjective tickle is

changeable, capricious; insecure.

amuse

English

Verb

  • To entertain or occupy in a pleasant manner; to stir with pleasing emotions.
    • I watch these movies because they amuse me.
    It always amuses me to hear the funny stories why people haven't got a ticket, but I never let them get in without paying.
  • * Gilpin
    • A group of children amusing themselves with pushing stones from the top [of the cliff], and watching as they plunged into the lake.
  • To cause laughter, to be funny.
  • (archaic) To keep in expectation; to beguile; to delude.
  • * Johnson
    • He amused his followers with idle promises.
  • (archaic) To occupy or engage the attention of; to lose in deep thought; to absorb; also, to distract; to bewilder.
  • * Holland
    • Camillus set upon the Gauls when they were amused in receiving their gold.
  • * Fuller
    • Being amused with grief, fear, and fright, he could not find the house.

    Synonyms

    * entertain, gratify, please, divert, beguile

    Derived terms

    * amusement

    References

    *

    Anagrams

    * ----

    tickle

    English

    (tickling)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The act of tickling.
  • A feeling resembling the result of tickling.
    • I have a persistent tickle in my throat.
  • (Newfoundland) A narrow strait.
  • * 2004 , (Richard Fortey), The Earth , Folio Society 2011, p. 169:
    • Cow Head itself is a prominent headland connected to the settlement by a natural causeway, or ‘tickle ’ as the Newfoundlanders prefer it.

    Verb

    (tickl)
  • To touch repeatedly or stroke delicately in a manner which causes the recipient to feel a usually pleasant sensation of tingling or titillation.
    • He tickled Nancy's tummy, and she started to giggle.
  • * Shakespeare
    • If you tickle us, do we not laugh?
  • (of a body part) To feel as if the body part in question is being tickled.
    • My nose tickles , and I'm going to sneeze!
  • To appeal to someone's taste, curiosity etc.
  • To cause delight or amusement in.
    • He was tickled to receive such a wonderful gift.
  • * Alexander Pope
    • Pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Such a nature / Tickled with good success, disdains the shadow / Which he treads on at noon.
  • To feel titillation.
  • * Spenser
    • He with secret joy therefore / Did tickle inwardly in every vein.

    Quotations

    * (English Citations of "tickle")

    Derived terms

    (terms derived from the verb "tickle") * tickle someone's fancy * tickle the dragon's tail * tickle the ivories * tickle pink * tickler * ticklish * tickly

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Changeable, capricious; insecure.
  • * 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , III.4:
    • So ticle be the termes of mortall state, / And full of subtile sophismes, which do play / With double senses, and with false debate [...].

    Anagrams

    *