Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A brief, sharp sound.
  • noun A mechanical device, such as a pawl, that snaps into position.
  • noun Computers An instance of pressing down and releasing a button on a pointing device, such as a mouse.
  • noun Linguistics Any of various implosive stops, such as that of English tsk, produced by raising the back of the tongue to make contact with the palate and simultaneously closing the lips or touching the teeth or alveolar ridge with the tip and sides of the tongue, and found as phonemic consonants especially in the Khoisan and some Bantu languages.
  • intransitive verb To produce a click or series of clicks.
  • intransitive verb Computers To press down and release a button on a pointing device in order to select an item on a display screen or activate a command or function. Often used with on:
  • intransitive verb To have good social or working relations; hit it off.
  • intransitive verb To become clear; fall into place.
  • intransitive verb To be a great success.
  • intransitive verb To cause to click, as by striking together.
  • intransitive verb To press down and release (a button on a pointing device).
  • intransitive verb To press down and release a button on (a pointing device).
  • intransitive verb To select or activate (an onscreen item) by pressing down and releasing a button on a pointing device.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To make a small sharp sound, or a succession of weak sharp sounds, as by a gentle blow; tick.
  • To move with a clicking sound.
  • Sometimes spelled klick.
  • To snatch; clutch: as, he clicked it out o' my hands.
  • noun A small sharp sound: as, the click of a latch; the click of a pistol.
  • noun A cluck-like sound, used in the alphabets of certain languages, especially the Hottentot and neighboring tongues in South Africa.
  • noun In machinery, a small bar which moves backward and forward, and at every forward stroke enters the teeth of a ratchet-wheel or rack, which it pushes forward, leaving it at rest during the backward stroke. Also called clicker.
  • noun The latch of a door.
  • To overreach, as a horse, and strike the front of the hind foot against the shoe of the fore foot, making a clicking sound.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb Prov. Eng. To snatch.
  • intransitive verb To make a slight, sharp noise (or a succession of such noises), as by gentle striking; to tick.
  • transitive verb To move with the sound of a click.
  • transitive verb To cause to make a clicking noise, as by striking together, or against something.
  • noun A slight sharp noise, such as is made by the cocking of a pistol.
  • noun A kind of articulation used by the natives of Southern Africa, consisting in a sudden withdrawal of the end or some other portion of the tongue from a part of the mouth with which it is in contact, whereby a sharp, clicking sound is produced. The sounds are four in number, and are called cerebral, palatal, dental, and lateral clicks or clucks, the latter being the noise ordinarily used in urging a horse forward.
  • noun A detent, pawl, or ratchet, as that which catches the cogs of a ratchet wheel to prevent backward motion. See Illust. of ratched wheel.
  • noun Prov. Eng. The latch of a door.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A detent, pawl, or ratchet, such as that which catches the cogs of a ratchet wheel to prevent backward motion.
  • noun UK, dialect The latch of a door.
  • noun Alternative spelling of klick.
  • noun A brief, sharp, not particularly loud, relatively high-pitched sound produced by the impact something small and hard against something hard, such as by the operation of a switch, a lock or a latch, or a finger pressed against the thumb and then released to strike the hand.
  • noun phonetics An ingressive sound made by coarticulating a velar or uvular closure with another closure.
  • noun Sound made by a dolphin.
  • noun The act of operating a switch, etc., so that it clicks.
  • noun The act of pressing a button on a computer mouse.
  • noun this sense?) The term used to show approval, acceptance, or general agreement.
  • verb transitive To cause to make a click, eg to operate (a switch, etc) so that it makes a click.
  • verb transitive (direct and indirect) To press and release (a button on a computer mouse).
  • verb transitive To select a software item using, usually, but not always, the pressing of a mouse button.
  • verb transitive, advertising To visit a web site.
  • verb intransitive To emit a click.
  • verb intransitive To click the left button of a computer mouse while pointing.
  • verb intransitive To make sense suddenly.
  • verb intransitive To get on well.
  • interjection The sound of a click.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Imitative.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Compare Old French clique ("latch").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Imitative of the "click" sound; first recorded in the 1500s.

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Examples

  • I had not long to wait, for after a few _yaks_, at intervals of perhaps fifteen or twenty seconds, the fellow took to wing, and went soaring in a circle above me; calling hurriedly _click, click, click_, with a break now and then, as if for breath-taking.

    Birds in the Bush Bradford Torrey 1877

  • _Click, click, click, click_ rang the hammer, and _splish, splash_ went the fragments of rock that fell in the water or were thrown into it; and thus for quite two hours Mr Temple hammered away, and after giving up a fragmentary conversation Dick and Josh grew silent or only spoke at intervals.

    Menhardoc George Manville Fenn 1870

  • Even while they spoke, a warning vibration of the wires was perceived, followed by the _click, click, click_, of the instrument.

    The Lost Lady of Lone Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth 1859

  • William H. Bonney, you are NOT * click click* a god. why don't you pull the trigger and find out?

    [Help] Most Recent Posts don henley 2010

  • This is dedicated rotascoping and a thing of lovely: D have a click and a woo * click*

    B3ta 2009

  • In fact, let me play it now …. * click click* … .. okay, that's better.

    ickmusic 2009

  • I'm guessing after every 10th purchase you're allowed to stab somebody, and Bob Shapiro will talk it down to a parking ticket. * click click click click* What's the fastest way to Heidi and Spencer's house?

    The Superficial - Because You're Ugly 2008

  • * click click click* Wow, forgot how much I hate it here.

    Geekologie - Gadgets, Gizmos, and Awesome 2009

  • * click click** loud exasperate sigh* Are you still crying?

    Kottu 2009

  • * click click* Hell, sometimes I think you cry for the sake of crying.

    Kottu 2009

Comments

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  • Farewell, Miriam Makeba. I want to remember her for this song, perfect for Wordie.

    November 11, 2008

  • Oh, how sad. The first Makeba song I ever heard was "Mbube", her incredibly beautiful rendition (reclamation, maybe) of "Wimoweh"/"The Lion Sleeps Tonight", the Soloman Linda song covered by The Weavers and, as a #1 hit in the U.S., The Tokens. Miriam's version is on another plane.

    November 11, 2008

  • Pure transcendence.

    November 11, 2008

  • To CLICK, to Snatch. I have Clickt the Nab from the Cull; I whipt the Hat from the Man's Head. Click the rum Topping. Snatch that Woman's fine Commode, or Head-Dress.

    May 9, 2009

  • In digital marketing: "In Web advertising, a click is an instance of a user pressing down (clicking) on a mouse button in an ad space. The term clickthrough is also sometimes used." --WhatIs.com

    July 6, 2009

  • In the entertainment industry, a movie that does well at the box office.

    August 26, 2009