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Webster's Dictionary (1865)

2 entries under this word

Lick

Lick, v. t.

verbtransitive

v. t. [imp. & p. p. LICKED (lĭkt); p. pr. & vb. n. LICKING.] [A.-S. liccian, O. Sax. liccon, leccōn, D. likken, Dan. likke, O. H. Ger. leccon, N. H. Ger. lecken, Goth. laigon, allied to Gr. λείχειν, Lat. lingere, Slav. lizati, Lith. laiz'yti, leszti, Skr. lih; hence, It. leccare, Pr. liquar, lichar, lechar, Fr. lécher. Cf. LECHER.]

Sense 1. To pass or draw the tongue over; as, a dog licks a wound.

Sense 2. To lap; to take in by the tongue; as, a dog or cat licks milk.

Sense 3. [See infra.] To strike with repeated blows for punishment; to flog; to chastise with blows; to beat; to whip; to castigate. [Colloq.]

To lick the dust, to be slain; to perish in battle. “His enemies shall lick the dust.” Ps. lxxii. 9.—To lick the spittle of, to fawn upon; to court with servile flattery or attentions. “Need not herd themselves with the rabble, nor lick the spittle of great ones.” South.—To lick up, to devour; to consume entirely. “Now shall this company lick up all that are round about us, as the ox licketh up the grass of the field.” Num. xxii. 4.

Lick, n.

noun

n. [Properly a stroke with the tongue; hence, a stroke, as with the hand or a whip. Cf. O. Sw. lăgga, to place, strike, prick.]

  1. A blow; a stroke. [Colloq.]
  2. A wash; something rubbed on. [Obs.]
  3. A place where salt is deposited from springs, in the form of an efflorescence upon the surface, and is resorted to by animals, which lick the surface to obtain the salt. [Western U. S.]