▪ I. click, n.
var. *klick n.
▪ II. click, n.1
(klɪk)
Also 7 klick.
[Goes with click v.1, q.v.; cf. also Du. and Ger. klick; OF. clique the ‘tick’ of a clock or watch.]
1. a. A slight, sharp, hard, non-ringing sound of concussion, thinner than a clack, such as is made by the dropping of a latch, the cocking of a gun, etc. Also fig.
| 1611 Cotgr., Niquet, a knick, klick, snap with the teeth or fingers. 1772–84 Cook Voy. (1790) I. 241 When they cocked their firelocks, he [exclaimed]..‘That all the locks made but one click’. 1788 J. Wolcott (P. Pindar) Peter to Tom Wks. 1812 I. 531 Whose fob..Was quite a stranger to a Watch's click. a 1845 Hood Tale Trumpet xiv, The click of the lifted latch. 1873 G. C. Davies Mount. & Mere xiv. 115 The click of the stonechat perched on a boulder. 1880 W. James Coll. Ess. & Rev. (1920) 196 This is a state of consent, and the passage from the former state to it..is..characterized by the mental ‘click’ of resolve. 1889 Froude Two Chiefs Dunboy xxvii. 414 A significant click caught the ear of both..Sylvester had cocked a pistol. 1906 Punch 6 June 411/3 The bricklayer's scheme of retribution fits into its place with so triumphant a ‘click’, as it were. 1935 W. B. Yeats Lett. Poetry (1940) 24 The correction of prose, because it has no fixed laws, is endless, a poem comes right with a click like a closing box. |
b. Radio. In pl.: the name given to atmospherics of short duration.
| [1912: see stray n. 3.] 1922 Glazebrook Dict. Appl. Physics II. 1044/2 The British Association Committee for Radiotelegraphic Investigation..has classified strays [i.e. atmospherics] into three types, namely, clicks, grinders, and hissing. 1936 Nature 6 June 955/2 A very clear distinction was obtained between the atmospherics of short duration (‘clicks’) and the atmospherics of long duration (‘grinders’). The ‘clicks’..are due to local actions inside the thunderstorm clouds, such as short sparks which are not easy to detect by visual observations. |
2. Mech. A piece of mechanism which makes this noise in acting; esp. a. the catch or detent which falls into the notches of a ratchet-wheel, and so prevents it from turning backwards; b. the catch for a lock or bolt, a latch (cf. clicket).
| 1758 Fitzgerald in Phil. Trans. L. 728 The click fixed on the frame stops the larger rochet. 1819 Rees Cycl. s.v. Lock (L.), The third part of the lock is the tumbler, which is a catch or click holding the bolt from being withdrawn. 1822 J. Imison Sc. & Art (ed. Webster) I. 85 The click suffers the ratchet wheel to pass. |
3. A defect in a horse's action, causing the toe of the hind hoof to strike the shoe of the fore foot. Also fig.
| 1886 Pall Mall G. 10 Dec. 4/1 When Ministers are riding the high horse of strict legality, such a discovery..is a serious click in their gallop. |
4. Zool. A name for the beetles of the family Elateridæ, from the clicking sound with which they spring upward when they have fallen on their backs. Also click-beetle.
| 1848 Hardy in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club. II. No. 6. 327 They often fall on their backs, from which position they escape by a mechanism..which..causes them to rise with a jerk, accompanied with a snapping noise, whence they have been named ‘clicks,’ or ‘spring-jacks.’ 1881 Whitehead Hops 48 The wireworm, the larva of an insect known familiarly as the click beetle. |
5. A class of articulations occurring in certain languages of S. Africa, consisting of sharp non-vocal sounds formed by suction, with the sudden withdrawal of the tongue from the part of the mouth with which it is in contact; also cluck. Also attrib., esp. as click language, click sound.
| 1837 F. Owen Diary (1926) 89 Uteeko..has a harsh and difficult click in it, and has no meaning being a word of Hottentot extraction. 1849 Jrnl. Amer. Oriental Soc. I. 428 The dialect of the Hill Damoras..is therefore included in the Click Class of African tongues. 1857 Livingstone Trav. vi. 115 The Bamepela have adopted a click into their dialect. 1883 R. N. Cust Mod. Lang. Africa II. xii. 300 It is generally..supposed that the Clicks found in the Zulu Language have been adopted from their neighbours the Hottentots. 1884 Sat. Rev. 14 June 786/1 The Bushmen languages can show eight clicks, the Hottentots four, and the Zulu-Kaffir three. 1933 J. T. Tucker Angola i. 12 These tiny people spoke a ‘click’ language using only nouns and verbs. 1939 P. de V. Pienaar in Ibid. 353 The Bantu and Hottentot children, when they acquire the language from their parents, at first have great difficulty with the click sounds. Ibid. 351 The clicks are the most important sounds of these Bushman dialects, and..there must be 40 different click combinations. 1950 D. Jones Phoneme 6 C. M. Doke has invented special letters for all these click combinations. 1968 New Scientist 29 Feb. 456/3 The click-speaking Bushmen and Hottentots. 1973 E. T. Sithole in T. Kochman Rappin' & Stylin' Out 67 The beauty of the Zulu language is in the alliteration provided by the click sounds. 1975 M. Duffy Capital iii. 135, I bet Times Square is just the same..exhortations and stop press news in Hottentot click language. 1985 G. T. Nurse et al. Peoples Southern Afr. iv. 83 The click sounds of Zulu and Swati. |
6. A smart, sudden blow, rap, or jerk, such as causes or suggests the sound described in sense 1.
| 1847–78 Halliwell, Click, a blow. East. 1874 Slang Dict., Click, a knock or blow. 1880 W. Cornwall Gloss. (E.D.S.) s.v., I'll gi' 'ee a click under the ear. |
7. attrib. and in Comb., as click-catch, click-jack, click-spring, click-stop; click-beetle (see 4); click-iron, the iron detent of a ratchet-wheel (see 2 a); click-pulley, a pulley with a click (2 a) to prevent the sheave from running back; click reel, a reel of a fishing-rod having a click or detent; click-wheel, a ratchet-wheel.
| 1831 J. Holland Manuf. Metals I. 91 (Cabinet Cycl.) This chain..contains towards the lower end a click iron. 1874 Knight Dict. Mech., Click-pulley, Click-wheel. 1883 Fisheries Exhib. Lit. XII. 212 Leonard Click reel. 1888 Goode Amer. Fishes 62 A more flexible rod..with a click-reel. 1890 J. Nasmith Cotton Spinning Machinery 217 When the ‘click spring’..is slightly oscillated in the same direction as the rotation of the ratchet wheel, it allows the click catch to fall into gear. 1948 Times 21 Apr. 2/2 The immediate cause of the accident was a faulty click-jack, a safety device intended to arrest the progress of tubs in a pit when they run away. 1957 T. L. J. Bentley Man. Miniat. Camera (ed. 5) iv. 38 Fitted with an f/2·8..lens..and having audible click stops. |
8. Hence, or from the verb-stem, various reduplicated expressions for recurring or successive sounds of the click type, click-clack n. and v. (dial. click-to-clack), also applied to chattering or prating. Also click-click, clickety-clack, click-clicking, click-clock; clickety-click, spec. used jocularly in the game of bingo (or housey-housey), etc., for ‘sixty-six’; clickety adj.; click-clack, clickety-click vbs.
| 1782 F. Burney Cecilia (1783) I. iii. 41 The insignificant click-clack of modish conversation. 1808–79 Jamieson, Click-clack, uninterrupted loquacity. 1856 Househ. Words XIII. 544 The click-clack of lesser engines pumping dry the numerous springs. 1867 R. Broughton Cometh up as Flower xxxiii, Lady Lancaster click-clacking away at that eternal knitting. 1870 M. Bridgman R. Lynne I. xi. 175 At every stitch ‘click-click’ went the steel pins. 1875 M. E. Braddon Strange World III. i. 4 To hear the click, click, click of the needle. 1877 E. Peacock N.W. Linc. Gloss. (E.D.S.) Clickety-clack, the noise made by a person walking in pattens. 1882 Besant Revolt of Man vi. (1883) 149 The steady click-click of the loom. 1896 Humanitarian June 432 Click-clicking with a type⁓writer all day long. 1901 Ibid. 3 Sept. 1/3 The click-clock of passing iron shoes. 1913 H. A. Franck Zone Policeman 88 i. 6, I sat down in an arm-chair against the wall and fell to reading, amid the clickity-click of typewriters. 1914 W. De Morgan When Ghost meets Ghost ii. xiv. 613 The up-express..dragged her train over oily lines and clicketty lines. 1919 W. H. Downing Digger Dial. 16 Clickety-click, number 66 in the game of ‘house’. 1920 Chambers's Jrnl. 67/1 The steady click-clock of his hoofs. 1926 Glasgow Herald 17 July 4 The omnibus train clickety-clicked. 1926 E. M. Roberts Time of Man iv. 142 Bright new machines that would go clickerty-click. 1933 L. A. G. Strong Sea Wall 256 A game of ‘house’ was in progress, and a voice monotonously droned the numbers:..‘clickety click’. 1938 O. Nash I'm a Stranger Here 213 The clickety-clack of wheel on track. 1959 Times 27 Apr. (Rubber Ind. Suppl.) p. vi/7 The persistent clickety-clack traditionally associated with railway travel. 1962 Daily Tel. 25 June 11/4 Clickety click, 66; Gates of Heaven, No. 7. |
▸ clicks and mortar n.punningly after bricks and mortar at mortar n.2 1a; compare Additions Business a strategy by which a retail or other business operates by means of both physical outlets and the Internet; usu. attrib.
| 1999 PR Newswire (Nexis) 19 July [David] Pottruck [of the investment company Charles Schwab] defined ‘*clicks and mortar’ as knitting together the best of what is available in physical distribution with the best of the web world. 2002 Bookseller 8 Feb. 9/2 The integrated ‘clicks and mortar’ approach of Samedaybooks.co.uk (formerly Methvens) has helped to more than double customer orders. 2006 P. Gottschalk ICO & Corporate Strategic Managem. (2007) vii. 166 ‘Clicks and mortar’ strategies have also met with mixed success. |
▸ Computing. The action of pressing (and releasing) one of the buttons on a mouse as a means of activating a program function or selecting a particular item. Cf. click v.1
| 1983 Inc. (Nexis) Mar. 124 A click of the mouse brings the chosen page to the top of the pile. 1995 Independent 6 Feb. 23/7 Because a click of the mouse lets them look busy when the boss walks by, the games epidemic is costing companies millions in lost productivity. 2000 News (Karachi) 25 Apr. 3/4 Information of every type was just one click away. |
▪ III. click, n.2
[partly a variant of cleek; partly the stem of click v.2 used as n. and in comb.]
1. = cleek, hook.
2. (See quot.)
| 1876 Mid-Yorksh. Gloss. (E.D.S.) Click, a familiar term amongst miners for money earned or gained in addition to regular wages. 1883 Huddersf. Gloss. (E.D.S.) Clicks, the hooks used for moving packs of wool. |
3. The act of clicking; a jerk with a cleek or hook.
| 1886 Pall Mall G. 6 Oct. 4/2 When a fish is seen the hooks are simply thrown beyond it, and..a sharp ‘click’ usually sends them into the soft under parts of the fish. |
4. A manœuvre in wrestling, whereby the adversary's foot is sharply knocked off the ground.
| [Cf. 1611 Cotgr., Clinquet, as Cliquet; also, a certaine tricke in wrestling.] 1872 Daily News 21 May, Graham is said to be one of the best men in England for the click..Putting on the click, however..he brought Mein down. 1883 Standard 24 Mar. 3/7 The young champion..administered the inside click. |
5. Comb. click-hook, a large hook fixed in a pole or fastened to a rope, for catching or landing fish; a cleek.
| 1822 T. Bewick Mem. 36 What he could catch with his own click-hook in the river he deemed his own. 1883 Fisheries Exhib. Catal. 13 Eskimo Click-hook for taking fish. 1886 Pall Mall G. 6 Oct. 4/2 Poaching with click-hooks. |
▪ IV. click, n.3
Anglicized form of clique (sense 1).
| 1822 Edin. Rev. XXXVII. 320 The little spirit of a click, or party. 1916 C. J. Dennis Songs Sentim. Bloke 40 Fair narks they are, jist like them back-street clicks. 1929 J. B. Priestley Good Compan. iii. v. 607 Local fellers, they was, all in a click, y'know, a gang. 1941 ‘N. Blake’ Abom. Snowman ix. 102 ‘Miss Ainsley was an old friend of Elizabeth?’ ‘I believe so. One of that click.’ 1959 C. MacInnes Absol. Beginners 63 Here was a family: at any rate, a lot, a mob, a click I could belong to. |
▪ V. click, v.1
(klɪk)
[Found only since 16th c.: it agrees in form and sense with Du., LG., dial. Ger. klikken; also partly in sense with OF. cliquer (Cotgr.). How far these are connected is uncertain: the word is of echoic origin, and may have arisen independently in different langs. In English and Teutonic generally, it appears to stand in ablaut relation to clack, as expressing a thinner and lighter sound; cf. chip, chap, clip, clap, clink, clank.]
1. a. intr. To make the thin, dry, hard sound described under click n.1 1; spec. of a camera or of a person operating one. Also (in various senses) with following adv.
| 1611 Cotgr., Cliquer, to clacke, clap, clatter, clicke it. a 1682 [see clicking ppl. a.] 1714 Gay Sheph. Week Frid. 101 The solemn death-watch click'd the hour she died. 1816 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. (1843) II. 302 It clicks as if it was walking in pattens. 1853 Kane Grinnell Exp. xxxiii. (1856) 287 The ice sounded.. like some one hammering a nail against the ship's side, clicking at regular intervals. 1929 C. Day Lewis Transitional Poem ii. 32 Desire clicks back Like cuckoo into clock. 1937 C. Beaton Diary 3 June in Wand. Years (1961) 311, I clicked away. 1948 Mind LVII. 485 After trying to recall a face, one often says, ‘Ah, now I remember the man you mean.’ In such cases we seem to feel something happen: something, as it were, clicks to. 1950 D. Gascoyne Vagrant 14 When Abbott's camera clicked. |
b. with object of result.
| 1819 Crabbe T. of Hall x. Wks. 1834 VI. 236 Who would bear his chains And hear them clicking every wretched hour. a 1832 ― Posth. T. Wks. VIII. 17 The clock that both by night and day Click'd the short moments. |
c. Of a horse: see click n.1 3.
| 1713 Lond. Gaz. No. 5170/4 Sometimes clicks in his Pace. |
d. fig. To meet or fall in with (a person) fortunately or at the right moment; to be successful; to fit together or agree exactly; to become friendly with someone; to strike up a rapport with (a person); to be a success in the theatre or other form of entertainment. colloq.
| 1915 T. Burke Nights in Town 107 The bright boys..saunter..up and down that parade until they ‘click’ with one of the ‘birds’. Ibid. 108 You have ‘clicked’. You have ‘got off’. 1921 Wodehouse Jill the Reckless viii. 120 A grey world in which, hoping to click, we merely get the raspberry. 1922 ― (title) The Clicking of Cuthbert. 1923 ― Inimit. Jeeves iv. 40 ‘Did you click?’ He sighed heavily. ‘If you mean was I successful, I must answer in the negative.’ 1926 Amer. Speech I. 436/2 [Show business slang]. A turn is said to click when it proves to be successful, or in the vernacular, ‘gets across with a bang’. 1927 Vanity Fair Nov. 67/2 He doesn't hope that he makes good. He hopes that he ‘clicks’. He trusts that he doesn't ‘flop’. 1930 Times 29 Mar. 10/4 The objects are arranged but not composed..so that they remind you a little of people assembled harmoniously but lacking some common emotion. They don't ‘click’. 1931 J. Cannan High Table xi. 164 Getting drunk when he was trying to click with a Glasgow buyer. 1934 C. Lambert Music Ho! iii. vii. 208 Receiving the glad eye from presumably attractive girls with whom he ultimately and triumphantly ‘clicks’. 1952 V. Gollancz My Dear Timothy xx. 316 To prove satisfactorily that a lot of these devices wouldn't ‘click’. 1958 Observer 20 Apr. 14/6 Put out under pressure to fill the gap..it [sc. the B.B.C. television programme To-Night] clicked instantly and is still the pride of British television. |
e. To come in for something; spec. to get killed. Mil. colloq.
| 1917 Empey From Fire Step 81, No. 1 Section had clicked for another blinking digging party. 1917 W. Muir Observ. Orderly 226 To click can be either advantageous or baneful, according to the circumstances. A soldier asks a superior for a favour, and it is granted. That soldier has clicked... But he has also clicked if he is suddenly seized on to do some menial duty. 1919 Athenæum 11 July 582/2 The verb ‘click’..has developed some passive meanings, such as to get killed. Ibid. 8 Aug. 729/1 To ‘click for fatigue’ is to ‘come in for’ a fatigue duty at the psychological moment. 1966 Listener 22 Dec. 927/1, I came out of hibernation..to find that I had clicked for a most alarming job. |
f. To become pregnant, to conceive. colloq.
| 1936 N. Coward Fumed Oak ii. ii. 58 A couple of months later you'd told me you'd clicked, you cried a hell of a lot, I remember. 1954 Landfall VIII. 228 In Wellington, just before he came down there was Heather, who had ‘clicked for a baby’. |
g. To ‘ring a bell’, fall into context. colloq.
| 1939 ‘M. Innes’ Stop Press ii. iv. 269 Something clicks. Tell me. 1960 A. Burgess Right to Answer ii. 37 Then the name clicked, because somebody in the town had talked about Everett. |
2. a. trans. To strike with a click; to cause (anything) to make such a noise.
| 1581 T. Lovell Dial. Dancing, He trips her toe, and clicks her cheek, to show what he doth crave. 1605 B. Jonson Sejanus ii. ii, Jove..at the stroke click'd all his marble thumbs. 1654 Gayton Pleas. Notes iii. viii. 124 Humble your selves, and click your Chains to th' ground. 1830 Marryat King's Own xxxiv, They..clicked their glasses together. 1830 Tennyson Owl, Merry milkmaids click the latch. 1918 W. Owen Let. 20 Mar. (1967) 541 Mrs. A. can click the piano quite quickly. 1930 C. V. Grimmett Getting Wickets iii. 59 The method of spinning is similar to that used in clicking the finger and thumb to attract attention. 1936 Wodehouse Laughing Gas xviii. 203 He was clicking his tongue in gentle self-reproach. 1938 J. Hilton To You, Mr. Chips i. 51 No upstart authority has yet compelled him to click his heels and begin the day with juju incantations of Heils and Vivas. 1958 M. L. Hall et al. Newnes Complete Amat. Photogr. 156 All one has to do is to point the camera and click the shutter. |
b. Also with adv., as click out, click up, etc.
| 1895 Westm. Gaz. 17 Apr. 8/1 How assiduously some of the political typists must have been clicking out these words of late. 1930 ‘A. Armstrong’ Taxi v. 46 And so for the next seven years the meters clicked up 1/- a mile. 1962 J. Dill in Into Orbit p. xix, A robot could easily click off pictures automatically or take measurements of radiation and heat. |
c. To get, receive. Mil. colloq.
| 1917 Empey From Fire Step 39 Shut your blinkin' mouth, you bloomin' idiot; do you want us to click it from the Boches? Ibid. 65 Trench mortars started dropping ‘Minnies’ in our front line. We clicked several casualties. 1944 J. H. Fullarton Troop Target xxx. 213 They tell me Micca's a good picquet to click. |
3. techn. To rule with a machine pen, the wheel of which clicks.
| 1869 Eng. Mech. 5 Nov. 166/1 This operation of clicking [i.e. ruling the pattern on paper] is the really curious part of the manufacture [of tartan woodwork.] Ibid. 166/3 He ‘clicks’ his pen to the first white line..Over sheet after sheet he clicks away. |
4. Printers' slang. (See quot. and clicking vbl. n. d.)
| 1860 Ruse & Straker Printing 121 A work is said to be ‘clicked’ when each man works on his lines, and keeps an account thereof. |
▸ Computing. a. trans. To press (one of the buttons on a mouse) and release instantaneously or hold down while performing another action; to activate (a program function) or select (a particular item) in this way, having first positioned the cursor on the appropriate part of the computer screen.
| 1982 Byte (Nexis) Apr. 242 They would be selected by pointing to them with the mouse and clicking one of the buttons. 1991 Macintosh User's Guide for Macintosh PowerBook Computers ii. 11 When you click an icon, it becomes highlighted (the icon is darkened). A highlighted icon is said to be selected. A selected icon is the object of whatever action you choose next. 2000 PC World Nov. 250/3 Click an entry and drag it to the Insert menu..When the Insert menu drops down, drag the mouse pointer to where you want the command, then release the mouse button. |
b. intr. To press (and release) one of the buttons on a mouse; to activate a program function or select a particular item in this way, having first positioned the mouse pointer on the appropriate part of the computer screen. Freq. with on.
| 1984 PC Mag. (Nexis) 17 Apr. 214 To move a window intact with a mouse, you would first click on the top left of a window and then click at the desired new location of the left-hand corner. 1989 Computer Buyer's Guide & Handbk. 7 vi. 29/2 You insert the program disk and click on the Install icon. 1991 UnixWorld Oct. 102/1 You choose the text tool and click to invoke the text dialog box. 1997 J. Seabrook Deeper v. 163 The trick was to hit a site, browse it, see a link, click on it, and get transferred to another site. |
▪ VI. click, v.2 Chiefly dial.
(klɪk)
[A variant of cleek with shortened vowel: cf. sick = ME. sēke, wick, in Spenser weeke, etc. Phonetically, it might also be the northern form of clitch.]
trans. (rarely intr.) To clutch, snatch, seize, lay hold of; = cleek. Also with up.
| 1674 Ray N.C. Words, Klick up, to catch up, celeriter corripere. 1691 Ibid., Click, arripere. c 1690 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Click, to snatch. ‘I have Clickt the Nab from the Cull,’ I whipt the Hat from the Man's Head. 1716 T. Ward Eng. Ref. 353 The Vicar..Clickt up a Rail, that they had broke. Ibid. iv. 397 (D.) ‘I take 'em to prevent abuses,’ Cants he, and then the Crucifix And Chalice from the Altar clicks. 1788 W. Marshall E. Yorksh. Gloss. (E.D.S.) Click, to snatch hastily or rudely. 1765 Univ. Mag. XXXVII. 40/1, I clik'd a fancy to you. 1863 Mrs. Toogood Yorksh. Dial., Click hold of him. 1877 E. Peacock N.W. Linc. Gloss., Click, to snatch..Mud is said to click up when it adheres in large flakes to the feet. |
| fig. 1680 H. More Apocal. Apoc. 283 To disarm my Antagonist of several Arguments that he clicks up. |