tchick, n.
(tʃɪk)
Also chick, tchek.
A representation of the click made by pressing some part of the tongue against the palate and withdrawing it with suction. Properly, the unilateral palatal click, used to urge on a horse; in quot. 1849, the dental click used to express vexation (in this case also spelt 'ts, or tut). So tchick v. intr., to utter this exclamation, or to make a sound resembling it.
| 1823 Scott Quentin D. xiv, Summing up the whole with a provoking wink and such an interjectional tchick as men quicken a dull horse with. 1824 ― Redgauntlet Let. vii, We heard Benjie gee-hupping, tchek-tcheking, and above all flogging, in great style. 1849 Mrs. Carlyle in Lett. (1883) II. 55 The young lady tchick-tchicked, and looked deprecatingly. 1887 Harper's Mag. Dec. 32/2 ‘That thar's moughty good string’,..Sterling could not refrain from observing, as the stout twine ‘tchicked’ in several pieces under a garden knife. |