unlicked

U1N1L1I1C3K5E1D2

adjective

Newborn (of an animal), not yet licked into shape; (by extension, of a person) naïve, inexperienced, unrefined.

First used 17th c.Scrabble 15
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Meanings

adjectiveunlicked (not comparable)
  1. not comparableNewborn (of an animal), not yet licked into shape; (by extension, of a person) naïve, inexperienced, unrefined.First known use 17th c.

    Rachel was an unlicked girl, no doubt prolific of confidences, the very first of which would be: ‘You see, I don't get on with my father.’

    1915, Virginia Woolf, chapter I, in The Voyage Out, London: Duckworth & Co., […], →OCLC
  2. not comparableCrude, unpolished; not skilfully formed or finished.First known use 17th c.

    [M]uch which I have heard objected to my late friend’s writings was well-founded. Crude they are, I grant you—a sort of unlicked, incondite things—villainously pranked in an affected array of antique modes and phrases.

    1833, [Charles Lamb], “Preface. By a Friend of the Late Elia.”, in The Last Essays of Elia. […], London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page v
  3. not comparableNot licked (by the tongue).First known use 19th c.
  4. not comparableUnbeaten, undefeated.First known use 20th c.

Origin

From un- + licked.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

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

MLA

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

Chicago

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

Source: unlicked on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.