tickle-footed

adjective

having unsure or slippery footing, or inconstant.

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Meanings

adjective
  1. obsoletepoetichaving unsure or slippery footing, or inconstant.

    tickle-footed wanton

    1824, Gilmour, Or The Last Lockinge
    3 more examples

    You were ever tickle-footed, and would not truss round.

    c. 1613–1616, Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, “The Scornful Lady, a Comedy”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1679, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)

    But what goes on Between a flower And tickle-footed Honey bee Is still a mystery

    1987, Margaret Paige, Ride My River with Me

    When the thunder stalks the sky, When tickle-footed walks the fly, When shirt is wet and throat is dry, Look, my darling, thats July.

    a. 1942, Ogden Nash, Summer Serenade

Origin

From the obsolete adjective tickle (“unsteady”).

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

tickle-footed. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tickle-footed

MLA

“tickle-footed.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tickle-footed. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “tickle-footed,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tickle-footed.

Source: tickle-footed on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.