Meanings
alternative lickedy · alternative licketie · alternative lickerty · alternative licketty · alternative lickity · alternative lickoty
- USinformalusually compounded with a nounAt full speed, fast.
lickety-cut
3 more examples
lickety-split
Away they started, “lickety-click,” and arrived at the winning-post within touching distance of each other.
1843, John S. Robb, Streaks of Squatter of Life, and Far-west Scenes, page 116Lickity, lickity, switch, we came to the ford, and Chiquita / Buckled right down to her work
1886, Bret Harte, “Chiquita”, in Abraham Firth, editor, Voices for the Speechless, page 95
Origin
Somewhat disputed. The Oxford English Dictionary suggests either the verb or noun lick “stroke with the tongue”, with -ety, a suffix used to extend monosyllabic words. Merriam-Webster supports OED, deriving lickety-split from the same senses of lick. Harper's Online Etymology Dictionary, in contrast, suggests it is a variant of the noun lick “sprint; rate of speed”. Some writers suggest that lickety-split may be onomatopoeic – compare clickety, clicketty-clack – but they note this as personal opinion. The word is attested, with variable spelling, from the 19th century; see quotations below and at Citations:lickety.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
lickety. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lickety
“lickety.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lickety. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “lickety,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lickety.
Source: lickety on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.