sb. Also chick, tchek. A representation of the click made by pressing some part of the tongue against the palate and withdrawing it with suction. Properly, the unilateral palatal click, used to urge on a horse; in quot. 1849, the dental click used to express vexation (in this case also spelt ’ts, or tut). So Tchick v. intr., to utter this exclamation, or to make a sound resembling it.
1823. Scott, Quentin D., xiv. Summing up the whole with a provoking wink and such an interjectional tchick as men quicken a dull horse with. Ibid. (1824), Redgauntlet, Let. vii. We heard Benjie gee-hupping, tchek-tcheking, and above all flogging, in great style.
1849. Mrs. Carlyle, in Lett. (1883), II. 55. The young lady tchick-tchicked, and looked deprecatingly.
1887. Harper’s Mag., Dec., 32/2. ‘That thar’s moughty good string,’… Sterling could not refrain from observing, as the stout twine ‘tchicked’ in several pieces under a garden knife.
