c.1709. Ward, Terræfilius, ii. 11. A Tickle Tail Match between a Vigorous Whore-Master and a Desirous Young Damsel.
1730. Broadside Song, 'Gee ho, Dobbin' [Farmer, Merry Songs and Ballads (1897), ii. 203]. I rumpl'd her feathers, and tickl'd her scutt.
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas [Routledge], 113. I know how to tickle a girl in a stiff gown, or an actress.
2. See Ticklish.
Verb. (colloquial).—To chastise: frequently (as in to tickle one's tail) a humorous threat of punishment. Hence tickle-*tail (tickletoby, or tickler) = (a) a schoolmaster's rod; (b) a schoolmaster; (c) a whip or strap; (d) a small weapon carried on the person: a knife or pistol.
1598. Shakspeare 2 Henry IV., ii. 1. Away, you scullion! you rampallian! you fustilarian! I'll tickle your catastrophe. Ibid. (1602), Twelfth Night, v. 1. 196. If he had not been in drink, he would have tickled you other-*gates than he did.
c.1600. Merry Devil of Edm., ii. 1. A plague of this wind; O, it tickles our catastrophe. Ibid., v. 2. I'll tickle his catastrophe for this.
1607. Dekker, Westward Hoe, v. 3. If we find 'em to be malefactors, we 11 tickle 'em.
1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, 'The Ingoldsby Penance.' Come falchion in hand, I'll tickle the best Of all the Soldan's Chivalrie.
1861. Dickens, Great Expectations, i. Tickler was a wax-ended piece of cane, worn smooth by collision with my tickled frame.
2. (common).—To bribe; to fee: also to tickle one's palm (or hand).
1874. Siliad, 110. Brought by the din . . . to run him in; But, tickled by a shilling in his palm, Walked on discreetly blind, and sternly calm.
Tickle-brain, subs. phr. (old).—1.
Strong drink; hence (2) a
taverner: also tickle-pitcher
= a tosspot (B. E. and Grose).
1598. Shakspeare, 1 Hen. IV., ii. 4. 438. Peace, good pint-pot: peace, good tickle-brain.
Tickler, subs. (colloquial).—1. A
puzzler; anything difficult or
perplexing: also (Halliwell) a
shrewd cunning person.
2. (American).—A small pocket-ledger; also a banker's register: of bills (of exchange) payable and receivable, and daily cash balances.
1889. Harper's Mag., lxxx. 464. The ticklers, showing in detail debts receivable in the future, those past due, and also the overdrafts, require explanation by the president.
3. (common).—A dram. Also (American) = a half pint flask of spirits.
1840. Southern Sketches, 33. Then he took out a tickler of whiskey; and, arter he'd took three or four swallows out'n it, says he, 'Oblige me by taking a horn.'
1888. Harper's Mag., lxxix., 388. Whiskey was sold and drunk without screens or scruples. It was not usually bought by the drink but by the tickler.
1886. Fort. Rev., N.S., xxxix. 77. It is too cold to work, but it is not too cold to sit on a fence chewing, with a tickler of whiskey handy.
4. (common).—A small poker: used to save a better one: cf. Curate.
5. (American).—A bowie knife.
1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit. One of which, for he was a man of pleasant humour, he was accustomed to call his ripper, the other his tickler.
6. See Tickle, verb.
Tickle-pitcher. See Tickle-brain.
Tickle-text, subs. phr. (old).—A
parson: see Bible-pounder.
