click
/klɪk/ noun, verb, interjection, proper noun
Forms clicks clicking clicked
- noun A brief, sharp, not particularly loud, relatively high-pitched sound produced by the impact of something small and hard against something hard, such as by the operation of a switch, a lock, or a latch. “As I turned the key, the lock gave a click and the door opened.”
- noun (UK) The act of snapping one's fingers.
- noun (phonetics) An ingressive sound made by coarticulating a velar or uvular closure with another closure. “tsk is a click in English.”
- noun The sound made by a dolphin.
- noun The act of operating a switch, etc., so that it clicks.
- noun (graphical user interface) The act of pressing a button on a computer mouse or similar input device, both as a physical act and a reaction in the software.
- noun (by extension) A single instance of content on the Internet being accessed.
- noun A pawl or similar catch.
- verb (transitive) To cause to make a click; to operate (a switch, etc) so that it makes a click.
- verb (intransitive) To emit a click.
- verb (UK) To snap one's fingers.
- verb (computing) To press and release (a button on a computer mouse).
- verb (transitive, graphical user interface) To select a software item using, usually, but not always, the pressing of a mouse button.
- verb (transitive, computing, advertising) To visit (a website). “Visit a location, call, or click www.example.com.”
- verb (intransitive, graphical user interface) To navigate by clicking a mouse button. “I soon grew bored and clicked away from the site.”
- verb (intransitive) To make sense suddenly. “Then it clicked—I had been going the wrong way all that time.”
- interjection The sound of a click. “Click! The door opened.”
- 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.
- verb (obsolete) To snatch.
Synonyms
click consonant chink clink suction stop pawl detent dog mouse click snap tick chatter flick cluck clack get through dawn come home get across sink in penetrate fall into place
Etymology
Imitative of the "click" sound; first recorded in the 1500s. Compare Saterland Frisian klikke (“to click”), Middle Dutch clicken (Modern Dutch: klikken (“to click”)), Old High German klecchen (Modern German: klecken, klicken (“to click”)), Danish klikke (“to click”), Swedish klicka (“to click”), Norwegian klikke (“to click”), Norwegian klekke (“to hatch”).
From Middle English clike, from Old French clique (“latch”).
From Middle English cleken, a variant of clechen (“to grab”), perhaps from Old English *clēċan, *clǣċan, a byform of clyċċan (“to clutch”). More at clutch.
Webster’s 1913
- verb To make a slight, sharp noise (or a succession of such noises), as by gentle striking; to tick.
- verb To more with the sound of a click.
- 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.
Etymology [Prob. an onomatopoetic word: cf. OF. cliquier. See Clack, and cf. Clink, Clique.]
Etymology [OE. kleken, clichen. Cf. Clutch.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “click”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details