[f. LICK v.]
1. An act of licking. Hence quasi-concr. a small quantity, so much as may be had by licking; also lick-up. A lick of goodwill (Sc.), ‘a small portion of meal given for grinding corn, in addition to the fixed multure’ (Jam.).
1603. Dekker, Grissil (Shaks. Soc.), 16. I knock’d you once, for offering to have a lick at her lips.
1662. R. Mathew, Unl. Alch., lxxxix. 129. This Woman with one lick of my Antidote (which was mixed with hony) … received ease all over her body.
a. 1688. Bunyan, Jerus. Sinner Saved (1886), 113. Many love Christ with nothing but the lick of the tongue.
1690. Dryden, Amphitryon, II. ii. (1691), 21. He could … come galloping home at Midnight to have a lick at the Honey-pot.
a. 1733. R. North, Life F. North, 219. He [Jeffries] could not reprehend without scolding; and in such Billinsgate Language, as [etc.]…. He call’d it giving a Lick with the rough Side of his Tongue.
1814. Abstract Proof respecting Mill of Inveramsay, 3 (Jam.). P. Wilson depones, that he did not measure or weigh the lick of goodwill.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Lick-up, a miserably small pittance of any thing.
1826. J. Wilson, Noct. Ambr., Wks. 1855, I. 255. ‘Ae wee bit spare rib o’ flesh … to be sent roun’ lick and lick about.’
1841. Gen. P. Thompson, Exerc. (1842), VI. 62. The polar man shall not have a lick of oil on Christinas Day.
1853. P. B. St. John, Amy Moss, 50. Everybody brought ‘sunthin’—some a lick of meal, some a punkin’ [etc.].
b. colloq. A slight and hasty wash (usually ‘a lick and a promise’). Also, a dab of paint, etc.
c. 1648. in Maidment, Pasquils (1868), 154. We’ll mark them with a lick of tarre.
a. 1771. Gray, Candidate, 2. When sly Jemmy Twitcher had smugg’d up his face with a lick of court white-wash, and pious grimace.
1855. Robinson, Whitby Gloss., A Lick and a Slake.
2. U.S. A spot to which animals resort to lick the salt or salt earth found there. Also buffalo-lick, salt-lick.
1751. C. Gist, Jrnls. (1893), 42. Salt Licks, or Ponds, formed by little Streams or Dreins of Water.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 663. Salt Lick and Salt Spring are used synonymously, but improperly, as the former differs from the latter in that it is dry.
1807. P. Gass, Jrnl., 219. One of our sergeants shot a deer at a lick close to our camp.
1827. J. F. Cooper, Prairie, I. v. 78. To rout the unlawful settlers who had gathered nigh the Buffaloe lick in old Kentucky. Ibid. (1841), Deerslayer, iv. Like deer standing at a lick.
1877. N. S. Shaler, App. to I. A. Allen’s Amer. Bison, 458. The springs at Big-Bone Lick, as at all the other licks of Kentucky are sources of saline waters derived from the older Palaeozoic rocks.
3. A complaint in horses (see quot.).
1827. Sporting Mag., XX. 162. Coach horses are subject to symptoms known by the appellation of ‘the Lick.’… They lick each other’s skins, and gnaw their halters into pieces.
4. A smart blow. (Cf. to lick on the whip, cited from c. 1460.) Also pl. (Sc. and north.), a beating, in phr. to get one’s licks, give (one) his licks.
1678. J. Phillips, Tavernier’s Trav., vi. 77. [He] gave the fellow half a dozen good licks with his cane.
1724. Swift, Wood’s Execution, Wks. 1755, V. II. 155. 3rd Cook. I’ll give him a lick in the chops.
1725. Ramsay, Gentle Sheph., I. ii. To lend his loving wife a loundering lick.
1785. Burns, To W. Simpson, Postscr. vii. An’ monie a fallow gat his licks, Wi’ hearty crunt.
1810. Sporting Mag., XXXVI. 79. Unless either of them gave him a lick on the head.
1820. Scott, Abbot, vii. The dread of a lick should not hold me back.
1826. J. Wilson, Noct. Ambr., Wks. 1855, I. 165. Every callant in the class could gie him his licks.
1837. S. Lover, Rory O’More (1849), 13. We’re used to a lick of a stick every day.
1887. Schoolmaster, 15 Jan., 104/1. The boy … deponed that the master gave him twa licks in the lug.
1894. Crockett, Lilac Sunbonnet, 103. The yin that got his licks fell down and bit the dust.
b. transf. and fig.
1739. Cibber, Apol. (1756), I. 28. A lick at the Laureat will always be a sure bait … to catch him little readers.
1794. Wolcot (P. Pindar), Ode to For. Soldiers, Wks. 1812, III. 247. A Lick at the French Convention.
1803. Naval Chron., X. 258. The tars are wishing for a lick, as they call it, at the Spanish galleons.
1883. Stevenson, Treas. Isl., IV. xviii. ‘I wish I had had a lick at them with the gun first,’ he replied.
5. Sc. ‘A wag, one who plays upon another’ (Jam.).
1725. Willie was a wanton Wag, in Whitelaw, Bk. Sc. Songs (1844), 20/1. And was na Willie a great loun, As shyre a lick as e’er was seen.
a. 1758. Ramsay, Grub-street, 5. He’s naething but a shire daft lick.
6. dial., U.S. and Austral. A spurt at racing, a short brisk spin; a ‘spell’ of work. Big licks = hard work. Also speed, in phr. at full lick, at a great lick, etc.
1837. Haliburton, Clockm., Ser. I. xv. That are colt can beat him for a lick of a quarter of a mile.
1847. W. T. Porter, Quarter Race, 104. He went up the opposite bank at the same lick, and disappeared.
1861. Bryant, Songs from Dixie’s Land, 26. At length I went to mining, put in my biggest licks.
1882. Miss Braddon, Mt. Royal, II. iv. 79. I … made up my mind to stay in America, till I’d done some big licks in the sporting line.
1889. P. H. Emerson, Eng. Idyls, 26. Down the river … came sailing the … whery … ay! going at full lick too.
1889. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Robbery under Arms, 82. It’ll be a short life and a merry one, though, dad, if we go on big licks like this.
1898. F. T. Bullen, Cruise ‘Cachalot,’ 218. The recipient, thoroughly roused by this, starting off at a great lick.
