[Found only since 16th c.: it agrees in form and sense with Du., LG., dial. Ger. klikken; also partly in sense with OF. cliquer (Cotgr.). How far these are connected is uncertain: the word is of echoic origin, and may have arisen independently in different langs. In English and Teutonic generally, it appears to stand in ablaut relation to clack, as expressing a thinner and lighter sound; cf. chip, chap, clip, clap, clink, clank.]
1. intr. To make the thin, dry, hard sound described under CLICK sb.1 1.
1611. Cotgr., Cliquer, to clacke, clap, clatter, clicke it.
a. 1682. [see CLICKING ppl. a.].
1714. Gay, Sheph. Week, Frid. 101. The solemn death-watch click’d the hour she died.
1816. Kirby & Sp., Entomol. (1843), II. 302. It clicks as if it was walking in pattens.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xxxiii. (1854), 287. The ice sounded last night like some one hammering a nail against the ship’s side, clicking at regular intervals.
b. with object of result.
1819. Crabbe, T. of Hall, X. Wks. 1834, VI. 236. Who would bear his chains And hear them clicking every wretched hour. Ibid. (a. 1832), Posth. T., Wks. VIII. 17. The clock that both by night and day Click’d the short moments.
c. Of a horse: see CLICK sb.1 3.
1713. Lond. Gaz., No. 5170/4. Sometimes clicks in his Pace.
2. trans. To strike with this noise; to cause (anything) to make such a noise.
1581. T. Lovell, Dial. Dancing. He trips her toe, and clicks her cheek, to show what he doth crave.
1605. B. Jonson, Sejanus, II. ii. Jove … at the stroke click’d all his marble thumbs.
1654. Gayton, Pleas. Notes, III. viii. 124.
| Her, and Toboso’s Pallace having found, | |
| Humble your selves, and click your Chains to th’ ground. |
1830. Marryat, King’s Own, xxxiv. They … clicked their glasses together.
1830. Tennyson, Owl. Merry milkmaids click the latch.
3. techn. To rule with a machine pen, the wheel of which clicks.
1869. Eng. Mech., 5 Nov., 166/1. This operation of clicking [i.e., ruling the pattern on paper] is the really curious part of the manufacture [of tartan woodwork.] Ibid., 166/3. He ‘clicks’ his pen to the first white line…. Over sheet after sheet he clicks away.
