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Click vs Lick - What's the difference?

click | lick |

As nouns the difference between click and lick

is that click is a brief, sharp, not particularly loud, relatively high-pitched sound produced by the impact of something small and hard against something hard, such as by the operation of a switch, a lock or a latch, or a finger pressed against the thumb and then released to strike the hand while lick is the act of licking; a stroke of the tongue.

As verbs the difference between click and lick

is that click is to cause to make a click; to operate (a switch, etc) so that it makes a click while lick is to stroke with the tongue.

As an interjection click

is the sound of a click.

click

English

(wikipedia click)

Etymology 1

Imitative of the "click" sound; first recorded in the 1500s.

Noun

(en noun)
  • A brief, sharp, not particularly loud, relatively high-pitched sound produced by the impact of something small and hard against something hard, such as by the operation of a switch, a lock or a latch, or a finger pressed against the thumb and then released to strike the hand.
  • * 1922 , (Virginia Woolf), (w, Jacob's Room) Chapter 1
    • There was a click in the front sitting-room. Mr. Pearce had extinguished the lamp.
  • (phonetics) An ingressive sound made by coarticulating a velar or uvular closure with another closure.
  • Sound made by a dolphin.
  • The act of operating a switch, etc., so that it clicks.
  • The act of pressing a button on a computer mouse.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author=(Oliver Burkeman)
    • , volume=189, issue=2, page=48, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= The tao of tech , passage=The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about:

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To cause to make a click; to operate (a switch, etc) so that it makes a click.
  • * Ben Jonson
    • [Jove] clicked all his marble thumbs.
  • * Thackeray
    • She clicked back the bolt which held the window sash.
  • * Tennyson
    • when merry milkmaids click the latch
  • (direct and indirect) To press and release (a button on a computer mouse).
  • To select a software item using, usually, but not always, the pressing of a mouse button.
  • (advertising) To visit a web site.
    • Visit a location, call, or click www.example.com
  • To emit a click.
    • He bent his fingers back until the joints clicked .
  • To click the left button of a computer mouse while pointing.
    • Click here to go to the next page.
  • To make sense suddenly.
    • Then it clicked - I had been going the wrong way all that time.
  • To get on well.
    • When we met at the party, we just clicked and we’ve been best friends ever since.
  • (dated) To tick.
  • * Goldsmith
    • The varnished clock that clicked behind the door.

    Interjection

    (en interjection)
  • The sound of a click.
    • Click! The door opened.

    Derived terms

    * click one's fingers * double-click * point-and-click * right-click

    See also

    * ejective * tsk, tsk tsk

    Etymology 2

    Noun

    (en noun)

    • Etymology 3

    Compare (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A detent, pawl, or ratchet, such as that which catches the cogs of a ratchet wheel to prevent backward motion.
  • (UK, dialect) The latch of a door.

    • Etymology 4

    (etyl) kleken? clichen? Compare clutch.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (obsolete) To snatch.
    • (Halliwell)
    English intransitive verbs English transitive verbs

    Etymology 5

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (US)

    • Verb

    (en verb)
  • (US)
    • ----

    lick

    English

    (licking)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The act of licking; a stroke of the tongue.
    • The cat gave its fur a lick .
  • The amount of some substance obtainable with a single lick.
    • Give me a lick of ice cream.
  • A quick and careless application of anything, as if by a stroke of the tongue, or of something which acts like a tongue.
    • a lick''' of paint; to put on colours with a '''lick of the brush
  • * Gray
    • a lick of court white wash
  • A place where animals lick minerals from the ground.
    • The birds gathered at the clay lick .
  • A small watercourse or ephemeral stream. It ranks between a rill and a stream.
    • We used to play in the lick .
  • (colloquial) A stroke or blow.
    • Hit that wedge a good lick with the sledgehammer.
  • (colloquial) A bit.
    • You don't have a lick of sense.
    I didn't do a lick of work today.
  • (music) A short motif.
    • There are some really good blues licks in this solo.
  • speed. In this sense it is always qualified by good', or ' fair or a similar adjective.
    • The bus was travelling at a good lick when it swerved and left the road.

    Synonyms

    * (bit) see also .

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To stroke with the tongue.
    • The cat licked its fur.
  • (colloquial) To defeat decisively, particularly in a fight.
    • My dad can lick your dad.
  • (colloquial) To overcome.
    • I think I can lick this.
  • (vulgar, slang) To perform cunnilingus.
  • (colloquial) To do anything partially.
  • To lap
  • * 1895 , H. G. Wells, The Time Machine Chapter XI
    • Now, in this decadent age the art of fire-making had been altogether forgotten on the earth. The red tongues that went licking up my heap of wood were an altogether new and strange thing to Weena.
  • To lap; to take in with the tongue.
    • A cat licks milk.
    (Shakespeare)

    Derived terms

    * ass-licker * cow lick * good lick * lick one's chops * lick one's wounds * lick out * lickspittle * lick up * licked * lickety split * outlick