Kittle Definition

kĭtl
kittled, kittles, kittling, kittler, kittlest
adjective
kittler, kittlest
Touchy; unpredictable.
American Heritage
Hard to deal with; ticklish; skittish.
Webster's New World

(Scotland and Northern England) Ticklish.

Wiktionary

(Scotland and Northern England) Not easily managed; troublesome; difficult; variable.

Wiktionary
verb
To tickle.
Webster's New World
To puzzle.
Webster's New World

(Scotland and Northern England) To tickle, to touch lightly.

Wiktionary

(intransitive, zoology, Scotland and Northern England) To bring forth young, as a cat; to kitten; to litter.

Wiktionary

Other Word Forms of Kittle

Adjective

Base Form:
kittle
Comparative:
kittler
Superlative:
kittlest

Origin of Kittle

  • From Middle English kitelen, from Old English citelian (“to tickle”), from Proto-Germanic *kitilōną, frequentative form of Proto-Germanic *kitōną (“to tickle”), from Proto-Indo-European *geid- (“to stick, jab, tickle”). Cognate with Dutch kittelen, kietelen (“to tickle”), Low German kettelen, ketelen (“to tickle”), German kitzeln (“to tickle”), Icelandic kitla (“to tickle”), Swedish kittla, kittsla, Danish kildre and perhaps Old Armenian կիծ- (kic-, “to sting, bite”). Compare tickle.

    From Wiktionary

  • From Middle English kitillen to tickle probably from Old English citelian or from Old Norse kitla

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • From Middle English kitelen, from Norwegian kjetla (“to bring forth young”), equivalent to kit +‎ -le.

    From Wiktionary

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