lickerish

English

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “lickerish”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Etymology

Probably an alteration of lickerous.

Pronunciation

• Homophones: liquorish, liquorice

Adjective

lickerish (comparative more lickerish, superlative most lickerish)

1. Eager; craving; urged by desire; eager to taste or enjoy; greedy.
2. Lecherous; lustful, mawkish.
   • 1922, T. S. Stribling, “The Web of the Sun”, in Adventure, Chapter 3:

     Birdsong, who followed the Colombian, stopped his hymn singing at this lickerish pantomime and watched his fellow muleteer in righteous disapproval. Condemnation was written in the Arkansan's very back and stride.

3. Tempting the appetite; dainty.
   • 1998, Sarah Waters, Tipping the Velvet, Virago (2018), page 399:

     I thought of all the lickerish pleasures of Felicity Place.

4. (Northern England) Sweet, luscious.
5. During mating season.
   • a. 1917, Charles Kenneth Scott-Moncrieff (lyrics and music), “The Willow-tree Bough”:

     Fighting like seals in a lickerish estuary

Derived terms

• lickerishly
• lickerishness