tchick

English

Etymology

Imitative.

Pronunciation

• Voiceless lateral click IPA^(key): /ǁ/
• To urge on a horse

  (UK):

  (file)

• To express disapproval

  (UK):

  (file)

Interjection

tchick

1. A click sound such as a palatal, lateral, or dental click.
   1. used to urge on a horse or other animal.
      • 1855, Eliza Lee Cabot Follen, Harriet L. Brown, Anne Wales Abbot, Child's Friend and Family Magazine, page 140:

        The driver mounted his box, put his long whip into a hole in the box, and, buttoning his coat, called, " Tchick, tchick, tchick." Away the horses set off, and went so willingly and briskly, till he saw a passenger waiting to get into the coach.

      • 1861, John Heiton, The castes of Edinburgh, page 337:

        "Weel! weel!" ejaculated the carter, "that comes o' your education ; G — d be thank'd, I never could write ; get on Bess, tchick, tchick," and giving the horse a lusty thwack, he made off as fast as possible.

      • 1877, Ascott Robert Hope Moncrieff, Stories of Whitminster, page 41:

        Do come back! Come along, old fellow! — tchick, tchick, tchick, tchicky."

      • 1984, Da Free John, Adi Da Samraj, Georg Feuerstein, The transmission of doubt:

        I called him — "tchick-tchick-tchick" — and started making noises toward him, holding up the acorn.

   2. used to express disapproval or disappointment
      • 1884, Margaret Oliphant, The Wizard's Son, page 241:

        Tchick! Tchick! Now I call that an awful pity Katie.

      • 1926, United States Congress House Committee on the Judiciary, Charges of Impeachment Against Frederick A. Fenning:

        Mr. Blantox. And she asked permission of the court for your boy to make a will and disinherit you? Mrs. Berg. Tchick-tchick-tchick.

      • 2013, David Edward Collier, The World of Horrotica: Dormant, page 451:

        A LOOK IN THE MIRROR, CHESTER SEES CHARLES CROMWELL PEERING OVER HIS SHOULDER, LEERING AT HIM WITH A SMUG SMILE FROM EAR-TO-EAR: “TCHICK, TCHICK, TCHICK, TCHICK, TCHICK, TCHICK, TCHICK,”

2. Used to represent similar animal or other natural sounds
   • 1869, Helen Fitch Parker, Constance Aylmer., page 89:

     The clumsy Herr was trying in vain to strike a light with a flint. Tchick! Tchick! but no spark appeared.

   • 1964, Frank Cummings Hibben, Hunting in Africa, page 65:

     Their shrill tchick, tchick, tchick, had done the damage, warning of our approach.

   • 1974, Winwood Reade, Eric Hosking, Nesting Birds, Eggs and Fledglings, page 217:

     They also fly with head sunk in 'shoulders', tail slightly raised and wings quivering, calling 'tchick tchick'.

   • 1997, Seung Sahn, The Compass of Zen, page 52:

     The doctor cut here, then he cut here, and pulled the skin back like this—piitchhuu—then folded it— tchick—like this, and tucked it under—tchick—like that, and pulled this piece over—tchick—like this, and sewed it across here—tchick, tchick, tchick.

   • 2008, Marlene Van Niekerk, The Way of the Women, page 282:

     From the day that I've been lying here and can no longer move around in a wheelchair, I've been hearing the door of the sideboard open. Tchick, open, tchick, closed.

Synonyms

• tlk
• tsk

Noun

tchick (plural tchicks)

1. A clicking sound, such as a palatal or dental click.
   • 1823, Sir Walter Scott, Quentin Durward:

     So saying, and summing up the whole with a provoking wink, and such an interjectional tchick as may quicken a dull horse with , Petit-André drew oil" to the other side of the path, and left the youth to digest the taunts he had treated him with, as his proud Scotch stomach best might.

   • 2011, Stanley J. Kays, Cultivated vegetables of the world: a multilingual onomasticon:

     The sound is created by sucking on the molars in the back of the mouth to create a sound (tchick) somewhat like that used in English to […]

   • 2014, Parag Tipnis, Talking Silence:

     The almost inaudible tchick of the panic button, the beep of the toxin test kit accompanied by green light indicating that he was not poisoned and click, screech and the clicktic of the front entrance.

Verb

tchick (third-person singular simple present tchicks, present participle tchicking, simple past and past participle tchicked)

1. (intransitive) to make a tchick sound.
   • 1857, Thomas Buchanan Read, The Female Poets of America:

     And the glass of water they've left for me Shall 'tchick!' to tell them I'm drinking!

   • 1935, Ursula Wyllie Roberts, Blind Men Crossing a Bridge, page 307:

     But Aunt Janey was tchicking rebukefully, with her hand out. "Nay, for shame," she said.

   • 1980, Richard Rayner, The Valley of Tantalika, page 161:

     The sandpipers took off, 'tchick-tchicking' away in flight, and the chameleon changed colour.