• IPA: /lɪk/

lick (plural licks)

1. The act of licking; a stroke of the tongue.

   The cat gave its fur a lick.

2. The amount of some substance obtainable with a single lick.

   Give me a lick of ice cream.

3. 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

4. A place where animals lick minerals from the ground.

   The birds gathered at the clay lick.

5. A small watercourse or ephemeral stream. It ranks between a rill and a stream.

   We used to play in the lick.

6. (colloquial) A stroke or blow.

   Hit that wedge a good lick with the sledgehammer.

7. (colloquial) A small amount; a whit.

   Synonyms: Thesaurus:modicum

   You don't have a lick of sense.

   I didn't do a lick of work today.

   • 2011 Allen Gregory, "Pilot" (season 1, episode 1):

     Allen Gregory DeLongpre: Why don't I call Jean-Michel at Il Portofino? We'll get a table outside? Ooh, I'm not getting a lick of service. Babe, can I hop on your landline?

8. (informal) An attempt at something.
9. (music) A short motif.

   There are some really good blues licks in this solo.

10. (informal) 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.

11. (slang) An act of cunnilingus.

    You up for a lick tonight?

• French: léchage
• German: Lecken
• Italian: leccata
• Portuguese: lambida
• Russian: лиза́ние
• Spanish: lamedura

• Spanish: bofetón, golpazo

lick (licks, present participle licking; past and past participle licked)

1. (transitive) To stroke with the tongue.

   The cat licked its fur.

2. (transitive) To lap; to take in with the tongue.

   She licked the last of the honey off the spoon before washing it.

3. (colloquial) To beat with repeated blows.
   • 1876, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XX, in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Hartford, Conn.: The American Publishing Company, OCLC 1000326417 ↗, page 163 ↗:

     "What a curious kind of a fool a girl is! Never been licked in school! Shucks! What's a licking! That's just like a girl -- they're so thin-skinned and chicken-hearted. […] "

4. (colloquial) To defeat decisively, particularly in a fight.

   My dad can lick your dad.

5. (colloquial) To overcome.

   I think I can lick this.

6. (vulgar, slang) To perform cunnilingus.
7. (colloquial) To do anything partially.
8. (of flame, waves etc.) To lap.
   • 1895, H. G. Wells, The Time Machine Chapter XI

     Now, in this decadent age the art of fire-making had been altogether forgotten on the earth. The red tongues that went licking up my heap of wood were an altogether new and strange thing to Weena.

• French: lécher
• German: lecken
• Italian: leccare
• Portuguese: lamber
• Russian: лиза́ть
• Spanish: lamer, lamber

• Spanish: lamer, lamber, chupar

• French: défaire, vaincre
• German: schlagen, besiegen
• Russian: побежда́ть
• Spanish: derrotar

• Spanish: vencer

• German: lecken
• Russian: лиза́ть

1. Surname