Dictionary

tchick en · INTJ

Pronunciation

• /ǁ/
• (UK) audio (UK)
• (UK) audio (UK)

Etymology

Imitative.

Meanings

1. A click sound such as a palatal, lateral, or dental click. ▸ used to urge on a horse or other animal.
   • I called him — "tchick-tchick-tchick" — and started making noises toward him, holding up the acorn. 1984, Da Free John, Adi Da Samraj, Georg Feuerstein, The transmission of doubt:
   • The driver mounted his box, put his long whip into a hole in the box, and, buttoning his coat, called, " Tchick, tchick, tchick." Away the horses set off, and went so willingly and briskly, till he saw a passenger waiting to get into the coach. 1855, Eliza Lee Cabot Follen, Harriet L. Brown, Anne Wales Abbot, Child's Friend and Family Magazine, page 140:
   • Do come back! Come along, old fellow! — tchick, tchick, tchick, tchicky." 1877, Ascott Robert Hope Moncrieff, Stories of Whitminster, page 41:
   • "Weel! weel!" ejaculated the carter, "that comes o' your education ; G — d be thank'd, I never could write ; get on Bess, tchick, tchick," and giving the horse a lusty thwack, he made off as fast as possible. 1861, John Heiton, The castes of Edinburgh, page 337:
2. A click sound such as a palatal, lateral, or dental click. ▸ used to express disapproval or disappointment
   • Mr. Blantox. And she asked permission of the court for your boy to make a will and disinherit you? Mrs. Berg. Tchick-tchick-tchick. 1926, United States Congress House Committee on the Judiciary, Charges of Impeachment Against Frederick A. Fenning:
   • A LOOK IN THE MIRROR, CHESTER SEES CHARLES CROMWELL PEERING OVER HIS SHOULDER, LEERING AT HIM WITH A SMUG SMILE FROM EAR-TO-EAR: “TCHICK, TCHICK, TCHICK, TCHICK, TCHICK, TCHICK, TCHICK,” 2013, David Edward Collier, The World of Horrotica: Dormant, page 451:
   • Tchick! Tchick! Now I call that an awful pity Katie. 1884, Margaret Oliphant, The Wizard's Son, page 241:
3. Used to represent similar animal or other natural sounds
   • The clumsy Herr was trying in vain to strike a light with a flint. Tchick! Tchick! but no spark appeared. 1869, Helen Fitch Parker, Constance Aylmer., page 89:
   • They also fly with head sunk in 'shoulders', tail slightly raised and wings quivering, calling 'tchick tchick'. 1974, Winwood Reade, Eric Hosking, Nesting Birds, Eggs and Fledglings, page 217:
   • From the day that I've been lying here and can no longer move around in a wheelchair, I've been hearing the door of the sideboard open. Tchick, open, tchick, closed. 2008, Marlene Van Niekerk, The Way of the Women, page 282:
   • The doctor cut here, then he cut here, and pulled the skin back like this—piitchhuu—then folded it— tchick—like this, and tucked it under—tchick—like that, and pulled this piece over—tchick—like this, and sewed it across here—tchick, tchick, tchick. 1997, Seung Sahn, The Compass of Zen, page 52:
   • Their shrill tchick, tchick, tchick, had done the damage, warning of our approach. 1964, Frank Cummings Hibben, Hunting in Africa, page 65:

Synonyms

tlk · tsk

tchick en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ǁ/
• (UK) audio (UK)
• (UK) audio (UK)

Etymology

Imitative.

Meanings

1. A clicking sound, such as a palatal or dental click.
   • The sound is created by sucking on the molars in the back of the mouth to create a sound (tchick) somewhat like that used in English to […] 2011, Stanley J. Kays, Cultivated vegetables of the world: a multilingual onomasticon:
   • So saying, and summing up the whole with a provoking wink, and such an interjectional tchick as may quicken a dull horse with , Petit-André drew oil" to the other side of the path, and left the youth to digest the taunts he had treated him with, as his proud Scotch stomach best might. 1823, Sir Walter Scott, Quentin Durward:
   • The almost inaudible tchick of the panic button, the beep of the toxin test kit accompanied by green light indicating that he was not poisoned and click, screech and the clicktic of the front entrance. 2014, Parag Tipnis, Talking Silence:

Forms

tchick en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /ǁ/
• (UK) audio (UK)
• (UK) audio (UK)

Etymology

Imitative.

Meanings

1. (intransitive) to make a tchick sound.
   • And the glass of water they've left for me Shall 'tchick!' to tell them I'm drinking! 1857, Thomas Buchanan Read, The Female Poets of America:
   • The sandpipers took off, 'tchick-tchicking' away in flight, and the chameleon changed colour. 1980, Richard Rayner, The Valley of Tantalika, page 161:
   • But Aunt Janey was tchicking rebukefully, with her hand out. "Nay, for shame," she said. 1935, Ursula Wyllie Roberts, Blind Men Crossing a Bridge, page 307:

Forms