Dictionary entry

Ticklish

Webster's Dictionary 1913

Tic″klish (?), a. 1. Sensible to slight touches; easily tickled; as, the sole of the foot is very ticklish; the hardened palm of the hand is not ticklish. Bacon.

2. Standing so as to be liable to totter and fall at the slightest touch; unfixed; easily affected; unstable.

Can any man with comfort lodge in a condition so dismally ticklish? Barrow.

3. Difficult; nice; critical; as, a ticklish business.

Surely princes had need, in tender matters and ticklish times, to beware what they say. Bacon.

— Tic″klish‐ly, adv. — Tic″klish‐ness, n.