▪ I. licking, vbl. n.
(ˈlɪkɪŋ)
[f. lick v. + -ing1.]
1. The action of the vb. lick; the action of passing the tongue over something, of fashioning into shape, etc.; † also, the action of daubing or smearing the face with paint.
| 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) IV. 435 Bestes..among hem self þey useþ cusses and likkynge and strokynge. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 305/1 Lykky[n]ge of howndys, or other beasts, lictus. 1549 Coverdale Erasm. Par. Ded. 2 What costly deckyng, lyckinge, censinge, and worshipping of ymages. 1623 Bp. Hall Serm. v. 154 It scorneth to woo favour with farding and licking and counterfeisance. 1631 Gouge God's Arrows iii. xcv. 363 By the daily licking of his rankling wounds with the tongue of lady Elenor his wife, he is said to be cured. a 1635 Naunton Fragm. Reg. (Arb.) 27 Besides the licking of his own fingers, he [Dudley] got the King a masse of riches. a 1656 Bp. Hall Sel. Th. §13 Jezebel, for all the licking, is cast out of the window and trodden to dirt in the streets. 1737 Fielding Hist. Reg. iii. Wks. 1882 X. 227 Shakespeare was a pretty fellow, and said some things which only want a little of my licking to do well enough. Mod. He is somewhat uncouth; he wants licking into shape. |
b. concr. in pl. (See quot.)
| 1851 Illustr. Catal. Gt. Exhib. 207 Coarse broad salt; exported for the fisheries... Pickings, or cattle lickings. |
2. colloq. A beating, thrashing. lit. and fig.
| 1756 W. Toldervy Hist. 2 Orphans II. 151, I gave him such a licking, I question whether he didn't carry some of the bruises with'n to the grave. 1780 in F. Moore Songs & Ball. Amer. Rev. (1856) 307 The fray assum'd, the generals thought, The color of a lickin'. 1806–7 J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) iii. xiii, Obliged to take a severe licking from a boy twice as big..as yourself. 1818 Keats Let. Wks. 1889 III. 115 He praised Thomson and Cowper, but he gave Crabbe a most unmerciful licking. 1831 Palmerston 29 May in H. L. Bulwer Life II. viii. 81 The moment they [the Belgians] stir a step to attack Holland, they will get a most exemplary licking. 1879 G. Meredith Egoist ix. (1889) 74 The power to take a licking is better worth having than the power to administer one. |
3. attrib., as licking-bout; † licking-medicine, an electuary; licking-place U.S. = lick n. 2; so licking-pond.
| 1597 Gerarde Herbal i. lxxxv. 137 This rosted..Onion..is used in a licking medicine against an old rotten cough. 1652 Culpepper Eng. Physic (1656) 144 The juyce [of Liquoris] dissolved in Rose-water with some Gum-Tragacanth is a fine licking Medicine for Hoarsness, Wheesings, &c. 1751 J. Bartram Observ. Trav. Pennsylv. etc. 27 The back parts of our country are full of these licking [printed liching] ponds; some are..of pale clay, the deer..are fond of licking this clay. Ibid. 68 We..travelled along a rich hill side,..then down to a Licking-place. 1762 P. Collinson in W. Darlington Mem. (1849) 238 Their bones or skeletons are now standing in a licking-place, not far from the Ohio. 1775 F. Burney Diary, Let. to Mr. Crisp Dec., Times are much alter'd since I gave him such a thorough licking-bout at back gammon. |
▪ II. licking, ppl. a.
(ˈlɪkɪŋ)
[f. lick v. + -ing2.]
That licks. Of a flame: = lambent. Also slang, first-rate, ‘splendid’ (cf. thumping, whacking).
| 1648 [see gentle a. 10]. 1680 Cotton Compl. Gamester xiv. 91, I will briefly describe it [Bone-Ace], and the rather because it is a licking Game for Money. 1899 E. Phillpotts Human Boy 182 The thing was, to make a licking big frame of light wood. |