Lick

How to spell lick

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce lick

What does lick mean?

1. verbTo pass the tongue over a surface, usually to taste, clean, or moisten it.
2. nounA small amount or thin coating of something.

Lick in a sentence

• verb

  The dog began to lick the empty bowl.

• noun

  The old fence just needs a lick of paint.

• verb

  You have to lick the envelope before sealing it.

• noun

  He never did a lick of work all afternoon.

Where does lick come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Lick comes from the Old English verb liccian, which meant to pass the tongue over a surface, and it traces back to a Germanic root that also gave German lecken and Dutch likken. The same ancient root surfaces in the Latin lingere and the Greek leikhein, both meaning to lick, which shows how old and widespread the idea was across related languages. The word is sometimes called imitative, since the sound of saying it loosely echoes the action of the tongue, though the core sense has stayed remarkably stable for over a thousand years. Over time English layered on figurative meanings: a thin coating, as in a lick of paint, and a small quick amount, as in a lick of sense. The informal sense of a short musical phrase, a guitar lick, is a much later twentieth-century addition. The spelling stayed simple and phonetic, so the only real care needed is the single hard c-k ending rather than any silent letters.

How the word is built

• lick (from Old English liccian, to pass the tongue over)