Click

Pronunciation

• enPR: klÄ­k, IPA: /ˈklɪk/
• Rhymes: -ɪk
• Homophones: clique, klick

Imitative of the "click" sound; first recorded in the 1500s.

Full definition of click

Noun

1. A brief, sharp, not particularly loud, relatively high-pitched sound produced by the impact something small and hard against something hard, such as by the operation of a switch, a lock or a latch, or a finger pressed against the thumb and then released to strike the hand.
• 1922, Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room Chapter 1There was a click in the front sitting-room. Mr. Pearce had extinguished the lamp.
2. I turned the key, the lock gave a click and the door opened;  a click of one’s fingers
3. (phonetics) An ingressive sound made by coarticulating a velar or uvular closure with another closure.
4. Sound made by a dolphin.
5. The act of operating a switch, etc., so that it clicks.
6. The act of pressing a button on a computer mouse.
• 2013-06-21, Oliver Burkeman, The tao of tech, The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about...and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention. Partly, this is a result of how online advertising has traditionally worked: advertisers pay for clicks, and a click is a click, however it's obtained.:

Verb

1. (transitive) To cause to make a click; to operate (a switch, etc) so that it makes a click.
• Ben JonsonJove clicked all his marble thumbs.
• ThackerayShe clicked back the bolt which held the window sash.
• Tennysonwhen merry milkmaids click the latch
2. (transitive) (direct and indirect) To press and release (a button on a computer mouse).
3. (transitive) To select a software item using, usually, but not always, the pressing of a mouse button.
4. (transitive, advertising) To visit a web site.Visit a location, call, or click www.example.com
5. (intransitive) To emit a click.He bent his fingers back until the joints clicked.
6. (intransitive) To click the left button of a computer mouse while pointing.Click here to go to the next page.
7. (intransitive) To make sense suddenly.Then it clicked - I had been going the wrong way all that time.
8. (intransitive) To get on well.When we met at the party, we just clicked and we’ve been best friends ever since.
9. (dated, intransitive) To tick.
• GoldsmithThe varnished clock that clicked behind the door.

Interjection

1. The sound of a click.Click! The door opened.

Derived terms

• click one's fingers
• double-click
• point-and-click
• right-click

Noun

1. Alternative spelling of klick

Compare Old French clique ("latch").

Noun

1. A detent, pawl, or ratchet, such as that which catches the cogs of a ratchet wheel to prevent backward motion.
2. (UK, dialect) The latch of a door.

Old English kleken? clichen? Compare clutch.

Verb

1. (obsolete) To snatch.----