lick

lick1 [ lık ] verb *

1. ) intransitive or transitive to move your tongue across something, especially in order to eat it, clean it, or make it wet:

The children sat licking ice cream.

Their dog was still licking itself.

The kids were licking honey off their fingers.

lick at: The cat was licking at its injured paw.

lick something clean: They would sneak into the kitchen and lick the bowls clean.

2. ) intransitive or transitive LITERARY if something such as fire or water licks something, it touches it several times

3. ) transitive always passive INFORMAL to deal with a difficult problem or situation successfully:

have someone/something licked: We'll soon have this thing licked.

a ) to defeat someone easily in a game or competition:

They thought they had the opposition licked.

4. ) transitive INFORMAL to hit someone

lick someone's boots INFORMAL

to try too hard to please someone in authority

lick your lips

1. ) to move your tongue across your lips

2. ) to feel very excited because you think you are going to get something good:

He licked his lips at the thought of the money he was going to earn.

lick your wounds

to think about something bad that has happened and try to feel better about it

lick

lick 2 [ lık ] noun count

1. ) usually singular the action of licking something

2. ) INFORMAL a particular set of notes from a piece of popular music

3. ) INFORMAL a hard hit with something

at a lick MAINLY BRITISH INFORMAL

very quickly

a lick and a promise INFORMAL

1. ) AMERICAN an occasion when you do something quickly and not very carefully

2. ) BRITISH an occasion when you wash something very quickly and not very carefully

a lick of something

a layer of something such as paint that you put on something to make it look better:

All it needs is a lick of polish and it'll look like new.