tice

See also: Tice, -tice, tiče, and tǐcè

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /taɪs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Etymology 1

Possibly from entice, as below, suggesting the bowler's purpose.

Noun

tice (plural tices)

1. (cricket, dated) A ball bowled to strike the ground about a bat's length in front of the wicket; a yorker.
   • 1862, James Picroft, The Cricket-Field, Or The History and the Science of the Game of Cricket, page 120:

     Bowlers should practise both toss and tice.

   • 1863 March 7, “The Complete Guide to the Cricket Field: Chapter III: The Batsman”, in The Boy's Miscellany: An Illustrated Journal of Useful and Entertaining Literature for Youth, volume 1, page 155:

     The tice is almost a full pitch. If you have a long reach, go in and play forward; if not, however, keep your bat down, and block it.

   • 1870 July, The Wykehamist, Number 33, page 1,

     Raynor, though somewhat wild, obtained an extraordinary number of wickets for very few runs, his fast "tices" quite puzzling the Eton bats.

   • 1911, Henry Charles Howard Suffolk and Berkshire (Earl of), Hedley Peek, Frederick George Aflalo, The Encyclopaedia of Sport & Games, Volume 1, page 452,

     A "yorker" (or "tice") pitches on, or within six inches of, the popping crease; […] .

2. (croquet) A ball left at a hittable but difficult distance or position, to lure the opponent into a mistake.

Synonyms

• (ball bowled to strike the pitch near the batsman's feet): yorker

Etymology 2

Aphetic form of entice.

Verb

tice (third-person singular simple present tices, present participle ticing, simple past and past participle ticed)

1. (obsolete) To entice.
   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene ii:

     What ſtrong enchantments tice my yeelding ſoule

   • c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

     Have I not reason, think you, to look pale?
     These two have 'ticed me hither to this place:

References

• “tice”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• -etic, CETI, EITC, cite, etic

Scots

Etymology

From Middle English tyce, aphetic from Old French atisier (“to stir up”), probably from a word meaning "to set on fire," derived from Latin titio (“firebrand”). Compare English entice.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /təis/, /taez/

Verb

tice (third-person singular simple present tices, present participle ticin, simple past ticet, past participle ticet)

1. to coax, entice, wheedle

Walloon

Etymology

From Old French terce, alternative form of tiers (“third”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tiːs/

Noun

tice m

1. terce