Lick vs Lack - What's the difference?
lick | lack |
The act of licking; a stroke of the tongue.
The amount of some substance obtainable with a single lick.
A quick and careless application of anything, as if by a stroke of the tongue, or of something which acts like a tongue.
* Gray
A place where animals lick minerals from the ground.
A small watercourse or ephemeral stream. It ranks between a rill and a stream.
(colloquial) A stroke or blow.
(colloquial) A bit.
(music) A short motif.
speed. In this sense it is always qualified by good', or ' fair or a similar adjective.
To stroke with the tongue.
(colloquial) To defeat decisively, particularly in a fight.
(colloquial) To overcome.
(vulgar, slang) To perform cunnilingus.
(colloquial) To do anything partially.
To lap
* 1895 , H. G. Wells, The Time Machine Chapter XI
To lap; to take in with the tongue.
(obsolete) A defect or failing; moral or spiritual degeneracy.
*
, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=1
, passage=In the old days, to my commonplace and unobserving mind, he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts, […], and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned.}}
A deficiency or need (of something desirable or necessary); an absence, want.
* Shakespeare
* 1994 , (Green Day),
* {{quote-news, year=2012, date=September 7, author=Phil McNulty, work=BBC Sport
, title= To be without, to need, to require.
To be short (of'' or ''for something).
* Shakespeare
To be in want.
* Bible, Psalms xxxiv. 10
As nouns the difference between lick and lack
is that lick is the act of licking; a stroke of the tongue while lack is a defect or failing; moral or spiritual degeneracy.As verbs the difference between lick and lack
is that lick is to stroke with the tongue while lack is to be without, to need, to require.lick
English
(licking)Noun
(en noun)- The cat gave its fur a lick .
- Give me a lick of ice cream.
- a lick''' of paint; to put on colours with a '''lick of the brush
- a lick of court white wash
- The birds gathered at the clay lick .
- We used to play in the lick .
- Hit that wedge a good lick with the sledgehammer.
- You don't have a lick of sense.
- I didn't do a lick of work today.
- There are some really good blues licks in this solo.
- The bus was travelling at a good lick when it swerved and left the road.
Synonyms
* (bit) see also .Verb
(en verb)- The cat licked its fur.
- My dad can lick your dad.
- I think I can lick this.
- 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.
- 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 * outlicklack
English
Noun
(en noun)- Let his lack of years be no impediment.
- I went to a shrink, to analyze my dreams. He said it's lack of sex that's bringing me down.''
Moldova 0-5 England, passage=If Moldova harboured even the slightest hopes of pulling off a comeback that would have bordered on miraculous given their lack of quality, they were snuffed out 13 minutes before the break when Oxlade-Chamberlain picked his way through midfield before releasing Defoe for a finish that should have been dealt with more convincingly by Namasco at his near post.}}
Antonyms
* glut * surplusVerb
(en verb)- My life lacks excitement.
- He'll never lack for company while he's got all that money.
- What hour now? I think it lacks of twelve.
- The young lions do lack , and suffer hunger.