lick.
To stroke with the tongue.
Meaning & usage
To stroke with the tongue.
The cat licked its fur.
To lap; to take in with the tongue.
She licked the last of the honey off the spoon before washing it.
Jim closed his eyes and licked his vanilla ice cream cone.
To beat with repeated blows.
To defeat decisively, particularly in a fight.
My dad can lick your dad.
To overcome.
I think I can lick this.
To perform cunnilingus.
To do anything partially.
To lap.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English likken, from Old English liccian, from Proto-West Germanic *likkōn, from Proto-Germanic *likkōną (“to lick”), from Proto-Indo-European *leyǵʰ- (“to lick”). Sense evolution towards violence unclear; not paralleled in any other Germanic language. Cognates Cognate with Dutch lekken, likken (“to lick”), German lecken (“to lick”), Vilamovian łaekia, łakia, łȧḱkja (“to lick”), Yiddish לעקן (lekn, “to lick”), French lécher (“to lick”), Friulian lecâ (“to lick”), Italian leccare (“to lick”), Lombard leccà (“to lick”), Norman litchi (“to lick”), Occitan lecar (“to lick”); also Faroese and Icelandic sleikja (“to lick”), Breton leat (“to lick”), Irish and Scottish Gaelic ligh (“to lick”), Welsh llyfu (“to lick”), Latin lingō (“to lick”), Ancient Greek λείχω (leíkhō, “to lick up”), Latvian làizît (“to lick”), Lithuanian laižyti (“to lick”), Bulgarian ли́жа (líža, “to lick”), Czech lízat (“to lick”), Macedonian лиже (liže, “to lick”), Polish lizać (“to lick”), Russian лиза́ть (lizátʹ, “to lick”), Serbo-Croatian ли́зати, lízati (“to lick”), Slovene lizati (“to lick”), Ukrainian лиза́ти (lyzáty, “to lick”), Armenian լիզել (lizel, “to lick”), Central Kurdish لستن (listin, “to lick”), Northern Kurdish alastin, alêstin, alistin, alîstin (“to lick”), Persian لیسیدن (lēsīdan / lisidan, “to lick”), Sanskrit लिह् (lih), रिह् (rih, “to lick; to eat”).
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.
a lick of paint
to put on colours with a lick of the brush
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.
A stroke or blow.
Hit that wedge a good lick with the sledgehammer.
A small amount; a whit.
You don't have a lick of sense.
I didn't do a lick of work today.
An attempt at something.
A short motif.
There are some really good blues licks in this solo.
A rate of speed. (Always qualified by good, fair, or a similar adjective.)
The bus was travelling at a good lick when it swerved and left the road.
An act of cunnilingus.
You up for a lick tonight?
Where this word comes from
From Middle English likken, from Old English liccian, from Proto-West Germanic *likkōn, from Proto-Germanic *likkōną (“to lick”), from Proto-Indo-European *leyǵʰ- (“to lick”). Sense evolution towards violence unclear; not paralleled in any other Germanic language. Cognates Cognate with Dutch lekken, likken (“to lick”), German lecken (“to lick”), Vilamovian łaekia, łakia, łȧḱkja (“to lick”), Yiddish לעקן (lekn, “to lick”), French lécher (“to lick”), Friulian lecâ (“to lick”), Italian leccare (“to lick”), Lombard leccà (“to lick”), Norman litchi (“to lick”), Occitan lecar (“to lick”); also Faroese and Icelandic sleikja (“to lick”), Breton leat (“to lick”), Irish and Scottish Gaelic ligh (“to lick”), Welsh llyfu (“to lick”), Latin lingō (“to lick”), Ancient Greek λείχω (leíkhō, “to lick up”), Latvian làizît (“to lick”), Lithuanian laižyti (“to lick”), Bulgarian ли́жа (líža, “to lick”), Czech lízat (“to lick”), Macedonian лиже (liže, “to lick”), Polish lizać (“to lick”), Russian лиза́ть (lizátʹ, “to lick”), Serbo-Croatian ли́зати, lízati (“to lick”), Slovene lizati (“to lick”), Ukrainian лиза́ти (lyzáty, “to lick”), Armenian լիզել (lizel, “to lick”), Central Kurdish لستن (listin, “to lick”), Northern Kurdish alastin, alêstin, alistin, alîstin (“to lick”), Persian لیسیدن (lēsīdan / lisidan, “to lick”), Sanskrit लिह् (lih), रिह् (rih, “to lick; to eat”).
An instance or opportunity to earn money fast, usually by illegal means, thus a heist, drug deal etc. or its victim; mostly used in phrasal verbs: hit a lick, hit licks
Where this word comes from
Back-formation from hit a lick, which see. Ultimately from liquor.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.