Tickliest

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Most easily set off into laughter or squirming when touched lightly on the skin ; most requiring tact, care, or caution to deal with
2. Extremely prone to giggling or wriggling when lightly touched ; the most sensitive or precarious to manage in a difficult situation
3. The most responsive to light touches that cause involuntary squirming ; the most delicate, awkward, or risky to navigate or resolve

Etymology: "Tickliest" is the superlative of "tickly," which in turn is "tickle" with the adjective-forming suffix "-y" added to it. The suffix itself is an old one: it descends from an Old English ending, "-ig," which meant "full of" or "having the quality of," and it still turns nouns and verbs into adjectives such as "sleepy," "cloudy," and "bumpy." So "tickly" describes something that has the quality of tickling, and "tickliest" ranks that quality highest among things being compared. Because "tickle" itself is the base, the superlative follows the regular English pattern: "tickly" becomes "tickliest" by changing the final "y" to "i" before adding "-est." The word is therefore less a coinage than a straightforward compound of a familiar verb and a long-established suffix.

Synonyms: ticklish