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lick

Pronunciation: /lɪk/

The English word “lick” has 20 meanings listed here.

verb

  1. To stroke with the tongue.
  2. To lap; to take in with the tongue.
  3. To beat with repeated blows.
  4. To defeat decisively, particularly in a fight.
  5. To overcome.
  6. To perform cunnilingus.
  7. To do anything partially.
  8. To lap.

noun

  1. The act of licking; a stroke of the tongue.
  2. The amount of some substance obtainable with a single lick.
  3. A quick and careless application of anything, as if by a stroke of the tongue.
  4. A place where animals lick minerals from the ground.
  5. A small watercourse or ephemeral stream. It ranks between a rill and a stream.
  6. A stroke or blow.
  7. A small amount; a whit.
  8. An attempt at something.
  9. A short motif.
  10. A rate of speed. (Always qualified by good, fair, or a similar adjective.)
  11. An act of cunnilingus.
  12. 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

Etymology

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”),…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.