ticklish
/ˈtɪklɪʃ
/adjective
1(Of a person) sensitive to being tickled: I’m ticklish on the feet...
- If you are ticklish and can't bear people touching your feet, you'd better skip this next bit.
- My wife is very ticklish, especially around the neck.
- I'm ticklish too, and I know how annoying it is when people take advantage of it.
1.1(Of a cough) characterized by persistent irritation in the throat.Take cough medicine to soothe a ticklish dry cough.
2(Of a situation or problem) difficult or tricky and requiring careful handling: her skill in evading ticklish questions...
- ‘In terms of the allegations, this is a very ticklish situation, and what we are trying to do is get all the available opinions, including some legal advice,’ he said.
- Again, kudos o'plenty are definitely in order for your discrete handling of a very ticklish situation.
- In addition, there is the ticklish problem of reparations.
Synonyms
problematic, tricky, delicate, sensitive, controversial, awkward, prickly, thorny;
difficult, knotty, tough, taxing, trying, troublesome, irksome, vexatious, bothersome, worrying, concerning, upsetting;
complicated, complex, involved, convoluted, intricate, vexed
informal sticky
British informal dodgy
2.1(Of a person) easily upset: they’re rather ticklish on the subject...
- The constant public childish bickering that had been going on between them ever since Matt had grown so irritable and ticklish some months ago could not have gone unnoticed.
Derivatives
ticklishly
- The Democrats have handled the economy ticklishly because they don't know where the figures are going to go.
ticklishness
- Once Marie has rubbed my feet vigorously in order to battle my chronic ticklishness, she spends an hour painstakingly applying pressure to every minute area with the edge of her thumb.
- I then realised that my ticklishness could prove to be a problem.
- Remembering that morning, on the plane, when Cassie began to display her ticklishness, which passed for flirting in Cassie's world, she felt mildly disgusted.