| 释义 |
tickler|ˈtɪklə(r)|
[f. tickle v. + -er1.]
One who or that which tickles, in various senses.
1. a. One who tickles by touching or stroking lightly.
1715tr. C'tess D'Aunoy's Wks. 452 One of those ticklers of Cat-guts that march before the Milk-women upon May⁓day. 1736Chesterfield Fog's Jrnl. No. 377 ⁋5, If, by chance, there be some few unhappy enough not to find ticklers, or some ticklers clumsy enough not find business, they comfort themselves at least with self-titillation.
b. A pianist. Cf. tickle v. 6 a. slang.
[1948N.Y. Age 9 Oct. 2/7 The Round Mr. Fletcher Butler, the distinguished Chicago piano tickler.] 1962Down Beat 16 Aug. 26/3 He had a magnificent attack..combined with the gaiety and shy humor that one looks for in a true ‘tickler’. 1975J. McClure Snake vi. 86 Me? I'm the tickler. Pianist. Y'know.
2. Something that tickles or is used for tickling.
a. A thing (or person) difficult to deal with or understand; a teaser; a puzzler (colloq.). b. A feather brush used to tickle the face of passers, as a diversion at fairs and carnivals. c. A birch or rod used in castigation; also, a single-stick. d. An instrument used by frame-work knitters for slipping the loops off one needle of the stocking-frame on to another in narrowing or shaping the fabric. e. An instrument for extracting bungs from casks. f. An implement for stirring a fire, a poker. g. In a motor engine, a device by which a small quantity of petrol is pumped into the carburettor to facilitate the starting of the engine. h. A small measure (about half a pint) of spirits (U.S. colloq.). i. A small knife or pistol carried on the person (U.S. colloq.). j. A memorandum book, or a series of dated cards on which to enter engagements (U.S.). Also transf., anything intended to serve as a reminder. k. A stern or severe letter. Cf. tickle v. 6 b. rare. l. An inductance coil in the anode circuit of a valve, giving positive feedback through another coil in the grid circuit. m. A hand-rolled cigarette or the tobacco from which it is made. Naut. slang.
a –j.1680Cotton Compl. Gamester (ed. 2) 4 The Knave and Rascal will violate his trust for profit, and lend him..a Tickler shall do his business. 1765E. Thompson Meretriciad (ed. 6) 27 The tickler you must use, And as you flog the Vet'rans, flog the Muse. 1808J. Ballantyne Let. in Smiles Mem. J. Murray (1891) I. v. 108 A review, termed by Mr. Jeffrey a tickler, is to appear. 1825Jamieson, Tickler, anything puzzling. 1825Sporting Mag. XV. 349 John now practised often with the ‘ticklers’; nor was it long before he attained the reputation of a noted hand at single stick. 1839Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. II. 118/1 A new and important manufacture..in the hosiery trade, in making lace caps from the stocking-frame, by the aid of the jack tickler machine. 1839Harry Franco I. 74 (Thornton Amer. Gloss.), I don't see that I have got your name down in my tickler. 1840Haliburton Clockm. Ser. iii. xi. 155, I..have half a mind to give you a tickler in the ribs. 1844Dickens Mart. Chuz. xxxiii, A sword-stick, which he called his ‘Tickler’; and a great knife, which..he called ‘Ripper’. 1848Bartlett Dict. Amer., Tickler, a common name among merchants and bankers for a book in which a register of notes or debts is kept for reference. 1861Dickens Gt. Expect. ii, Tickler was a wax-ended piece of cane, worn smooth by collision with my tickled frame. 1875Sussex Gloss., Tickler, an iron pin used by brewers to take a bung out of a cask. 1881G. F. Jackson Shropsh. Word-bk., Tickler, a slender steel rod..used for stirring the fire. 1889Harper's Mag. Aug. 388/2 Whiskey..was not usually bought by the drink, but by the tickler..a bottle..holding a half-pint. 1891T. Anderton Lett. fr. Country Ho. 237 They poke out the gleeds at the bottom with the tickler, and put them at the top with the tongs. 1892Labour Commission Gloss., Ticklers, four small points firmly fixed into a piece of wood which are pressed upon the eyes of the needles and remove the stitches in the hosiery industry. This is the operation of fashioning. 1904Sat. Rev. 18 June 784/1 Patriots, who with whisky, rattles, ticklers, Union Jacks and patriotic melody..celebrated the relief [of Mafeking]. 1905Calkins & Holden Art Mod. Advertising 351 A tickler is any small piece of printed matter sent out to keep open a prospective sale on the part of the inquirer. 1906Daily Chron. 14 Nov. 9/3 The carburettor can be flooded without lifting the bonnet, by operating a ‘tickler’ situated outside the bonnet. 1970New Yorker 3 Oct. 34/3 The new lineup of teams can be easily remembered with the aid of a handy mental ‘tickler’.
k.1846Ld. Palmerston Let. 27 Sept. in H. L. E. Bulwer Life Palmerston (1874) III. viii. 299 Do not mention it to anyone; but the Queen has written the King of the French a tickler in answer to a letter he sent her. 1902G. W. E. Russell Onlooker's Notebook xiv. 102 An Illustrious Personage wrote to the Dean [of Windsor] suggesting that, as Mr. Gladstone was engaged in violent attacks upon the Government, it might be better if his visits to the Deanery were discontinued. ‘Whereupon,’ said the stout old Dean..‘I wrote her a tickler’.
l.1922[see reaction 3 e]. 1931Moyer & Wostrel Radio Handbk. vii. 335 A tickler..usually more than makes up for this decrease in detection coefficient by increasing the strength of the impressed radio signal. 1948[see radio n. 2 a].
m.1929F. C. Bowen Sea Slang 141 Ticklers,..is also a name for cigarettes made from the monthly issue of naval tobacco. 1964J. Hale Grudge Fight i. ii. 29 Brooks rolls and lights a tickler. 1977G. Melly Rum, Bum & Concertina iv. 54 ‘Tickler’ is naval slang for duty-free tobacco.
3. A large American longicorn beetle, Monohammus titillator, with very long antennæ. U.S.
1841–52T. W. Harris Insects Injur. Veget. ii. (1862) 105 The largest Capricorn-beetle,..found in New England, is..the tickler, so named probably on account of the habit which it has..of gently touching now and then the surface on which it walks with the tips of its long antennæ.
4. attrib. and Comb., as (sense 2 j) tickler card, tickler file, tickler system, tickler telegram; tickler coil = sense 2 l above.
1931New Yorker 10 Oct. 21/1 He ran the tickler cards in their credit department. 1940Chambers's Techn. Dict. 850/2 Tickler coil.., an inductance coil included in the anode circuit of a thermionic valve and magnetically coupled to the grid circuit to obtain reaction. 1975R. L. Shrader Electronic Communication (ed. 3) xviii. 433/1 To increase the sensitivity and selectivity of the grid-leak detector, a plate-circuit tickler coil can be used.
1939C. Morley Kitty Foyle (1940) xix. 174 You might remind me of that sometimes. Put it in the tickler file. 1972D. Bagley Enemy xiii. 105 Authority had lost interest in him and he would exist only in a tickler file to remind someone to give an annual check.
1962‘A. A. Fair’ Stop at Red Light iii. 56 Real estate, subdivisions..figuring interest, keeping a tickler system for time payments.
1938Sun (Baltimore) 21 June 6/7 One father..remembered last year to send admonitioning letters to each member of his family and follow them up with ‘tickler’ telegrams. |