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Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

tickle-footed en · ADJ

Etymology

From the obsolete adjective tickle (“unsteady”).

Meanings

  1. (obsolete, poetic) having unsure or slippery footing, or inconstant.
    • You were ever tickle-footed, and would not truss round. c. 1613–1616, Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, “The Scornful Lady, a Comedy”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1679, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
    • When the thunder stalks the sky, When tickle-footed walks the fly, When shirt is wet and throat is dry, Look, my darling, thats July. a. 1942, Ogden Nash, Summer Serenade:
    • But what goes on Between a flower And tickle-footed Honey bee Is still a mystery 1987, Margaret Paige, Ride My River with Me:
    • tickle-footed wanton 1824, Gilmour, Or The Last Lockinge: