lick

«lick» in Mova's school dictionary: to move your tongue over it, to taste it, eat it or wet it — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (lick, licks, licked, licking); noun (a lick, licks)

meaning for a pupil

1) To lick something means to move your tongue over it, to taste it, eat it or wet it. tree →

2) Flames lick something when they touch it lightly. tree →

3) A lick is one movement of the tongue. tree →

4) A lick of paint means a thin coat of paint. tree →

5) Lick can also mean to beat someone easily in a fight or contest. tree →

sense in the lessons

In everyday life you lick an ice cream or lolly, and a dog licks your face or hand to say hello. In hygiene, licking dirty fingers or sharing licked spoons spreads germs; don't lick batteries, metal poles in frost, or unknown things. Cats lick their fur to clean themselves. In science, animals lick wounds or salt. In stories, flames «lick» at the walls. «Lick your lips» shows something tastes or looks good.

examples

• She licked the ice cream before it melted. tree →
• The dog licked my face. tree →
• Cats lick their fur to keep it clean. tree →
• Don't lick your fingers after touching money. tree →
• He licked his lips at the sight of the cake. tree →
• Flames licked at the edge of the paper. tree →
• The old fence needs a lick of paint. tree →
• Never lick a frozen metal pole; your tongue can stick. tree →
• I fought with him, and licked him." tree →

note

Regular verb: licked, licking. Countable noun. «Lick» uses the tongue; «suck» uses the lips and mouth to pull in; «bite» uses teeth. Informal «a lick» can mean a little bit (a lick of paint).

In the corpora

• Lilies are very poisonous to cats; even pollen licked off their fur can damage the kidneys.
• A cone round a pet's neck after an operation stops it licking its stitches, because licking can open the wound.
• Elephant families walk behind the matriarch along old paths that lead to water, salt licks and fruit trees.
• Lorikeets have brush-tipped tongues for licking nectar and pollen from flowers, and they are noisy visitors to gardens in eastern Australia.
• Picture a crested gecko licking its own eyeball: it has no moving eyelids, so its tongue is its windscreen wiper.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «lick» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.