/klɪk/, [kʰl̥ɪk]
OriginImitative of the "click" sound; first recorded in the 1500s. Compare Saterland Frisian klikke (“to click”), Middle Dutch clicken (Modern Dutch: klikken (“to click”)), Old High German klecchen (Modern German: klecken, klicken (“to click”)), Danish klikke (“to click”), Swedish klicka (“to click”), Norwegian klikke (“to click”), Norwegian klekke (“to hatch”).
- A brief, sharp, not particularly loud, relatively high-pitched sound produced by the impact of something small and hard against something hard, such as by the operation of a switch, a lock, or a latch.
“As I turned the key, the lock gave a click and the door opened.”
“There was a click in the front sitting-room. Mr. Pearce had extinguished the lamp.”
- BritishThe act of snapping one's fingers.
- An ingressive sound made by coarticulating a velar or uvular closure with another closure.
“tsk is a click in English.”
- The sound made by a dolphin.
- The act of operating a switch, etc., so that it clicks.
- The act of pressing a button on a computer mouse or similar input device, both as a physical act and a reaction in the software.
- broadlyA single instance of content on the Internet being accessed.
“The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about[…]and so on. But the real way to build a successful online bus”
“Internet traffic to legal pornography sites in the UK comprised 8.5% of all "clicks" on web pages in June – exceeding those for shopping, news, business or social networks, according to new data obtai”
- A pawl or similar catch.
“A wheel, with teeth in which a click or pawl engages to prevent backward motion; or the same with addition of another click through which power is imparted at intervals to move the wheel.”
- UK, obsolete, slangA knock or blow.
“This roused the tinker's choler, already provoked at Tugwell's amorous freedom with his doxy, and he gave him a click in the mazard. Tugwell had not been used tamely to receive a kick or a cuff; he, t”
- A limb contortion at the joint, part of vogue dancing.
- informalA click track.
“But I knew I needed a click, so we put a click on the 24-track, which then was synced to the Moog Modular.”
- A detent, pawl, or ratchet, such as that which catches the cogs of a ratchet wheel to prevent backward motion.
- UK, dialectalThe latch of a door.
- A kind of throw.
“inside click; outside click; cross click”
- US, alt-of, misspellingMisspelling of clique.
- transitiveTo cause to make a click; to operate (a switch, etc) so that it makes a click.
“[Jove] clicked all his marble thumbs.”
“She clicked back the bolt which held the window sash.”
“When merry milkmaids click the latch, / And rarely smells the new-mown hay, / […] / Alone and warming his five wits, / The white owl in the belfry sits.”
- intransitiveTo emit a click.
“Surely that picture will be fixed for ever, for I heard the cameras clicking round me like crickets in a field.”
- BritishTo snap one's fingers.
- To press and release (a button on a computer mouse).
- transitiveTo select a software item using, usually, but not always, the pressing of a mouse button.
- transitiveTo visit (a website).
“Visit a location, call, or click www.example.com.”
- intransitiveTo navigate by clicking a mouse button.
“I soon grew bored and clicked away from the site.”
“From the home page, click through to the Products section.”
- intransitiveTo make sense suddenly.
“Then it clicked—I had been going the wrong way all that time.”
- intransitiveTo get along well.
“When we met at the party, we just clicked and we’ve been best friends ever since.”
“After tea, the bright boys wash, clean their boots, and change into their “second-best” attire, and stroll forth[…]; sometimes to saunter, in company with others, up and down that parade until they “c”
- dated, intransitiveTo tick.
“the varnish'd clock that click'd behind the door”
- India, transitiveTo take (a photograph) with a camera.
“Brad immediately took out his Iphone^([sic]) and clicked a picture of the plant and posted it up on Google and clicked search.”
“They clicked some pictures outside his sea facing bungalow and left dejected again.”
- India, intransitiveTo achieve success in one's career or a breakthrough, often the first time.
- India, intransitiveOf a film, to be successful at the box office.
- obsoleteTo snatch.
“‘I take 'em to prevent abuses,’ Cants he, and then the Crucifix And Chalice from the Altar clicks.”
- US, alt-of, misspellingMisspelling of clique.
- The sound of a click.
“Click! The door opened.”
- countable, uncountableA surname.
- countable, uncountableA ghost town in Llano County, Texas, United States, named after settler Malachi Click.
Formsclicks(plural) · clicks(present, singular, third-person) · clicking(participle, present) · clicked(participle, past) · clicked(past) · Clicks(plural)