A brief, sharp, not particularly loud, relatively high-pitched sound produced by the impact of something small and hard against something hard, such as by the operation of a switch, a lock, or a latch.
As I turned the key, the lock gave a click and the door opened.
There was a click in the front sitting-room. Mr. Pearce had extinguished the lamp.1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, chapter 1, in Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960, →OCLC:
Human sciences, Linguistics, Phonetics, Phonology, Sciences An ingressive sound made by coarticulating a velar or uvular closure with another closure.
tsk is a click in English.
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The sound made by a dolphin.
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The act of operating a switch, etc., so that it clicks.
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Computing, Engineering, Graphical user interface, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences The act of pressing a button on a computer mouse or similar input device, both as a physical act and a reaction in the software.
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Broadly A single instance of content on the Internet being accessed.
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.2013 June 21, Oliver Burkeman, “The tao of tech”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 48:
Internet traffic to legal pornography sites in the UK comprised 8.5% of all "clicks" on web pages in June – exceeding those for shopping, news, business or social networks, according to new data obtained exclusively by the Guardian.2013 July 26, Charles Arthur, “Porn sites get more internet traffic in UK than social networks or shopping”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
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A pawl or similar catch.
A wheel, with teeth in which a click or pawl engages to prevent backward motion; or the same with addition of another click through which power is imparted at intervals to move the wheel.1943, Chilton's Jewelers' Circular:
This roused the tinker's choler, already provoked at Tugwell's amorous freedom with his doxy, and he gave him a click in the mazard. Tugwell had not been used tamely to receive a kick or a cuff; he, therefore, gave the tinker a rejoinder, […]1808, Richard Graves, The Spiritual Quixote, page 127:
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A limb contortion at the joint, part of vogue dancing.
But I knew I needed a click, so we put a click on the 24-track, which then was synced to the Moog Modular.2013, “Giorgio by Moroder”, in Giorgio Moroder (lyrics), Random Access Memories, performed by Daft Punk:
click
verb
Etymology Imitative of the "click" sound; first recorded in the 1500s. Compare Saterland Frisian klikke (“to click”), Middle Dutch clicken (Modern Dutch: klikken (“to click”)), Old High German klecchen (Modern German: klecken, klicken (“to click”)), Danish klikke (“to click”), Swedish klicka (“to click”), Norwegian klikke (“to click”), Norwegian klekke (“to hatch”).
To cause to make a click; to operate (a switch, etc) so that it makes a click.
[Jove] clicked all his marble thumbs.1603 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, Seianus His Fall, London: […] G[eorge] Elld, for Thomas Thorpe, published 1605, →OCLC, (please specify the page):
She clicked back the bolt which held the window sash.1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter L, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:
3 more examples
When merry milkmaids click the latch, / And rarely smells the new-mown hay, / […] / Alone and warming his five wits, / The white owl in the belfry sits.1842, Alfred Tennyson, “Song.—The Owl.”, in Poems. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, stanza 2, page 20:
His voice rose in a clacking chatter; his long whip curled over the backs of the dogs, and, eager for the thrill of the trail, the malemiuts leaped out in a straight tawny line, whimpering and whining and clicking their jaws […]1918, The Cosmopolitan, volume 66, page 61:
Dan clicked his tongue.1956, Ethel Anderson, At Parramatta, published 1985, page 60:
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To emit a click.
Surely that picture will be fixed for ever, for I heard the cameras clicking round me like crickets in a field.1929, Arthur Conan Doyle, When the World Screamed:
From the home page, click through to the Products section.
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To make sense suddenly.
Then it clicked—I had been going the wrong way all that time.
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To get along well.
When we met at the party, we just clicked and we’ve been best friends ever since.
After tea, the bright boys wash, clean their boots, and change into their “second-best” attire, and stroll forth[…]; sometimes to saunter, in company with others, up and down that parade until they “click” with one of the “birds.”1918 [1915], Thomas Burke, Nights in London, New York: Henry Holt and Company, page 75:
Brad immediately took out his Iphone^([sic]) and clicked a picture of the plant and posted it up on Google and clicked search.2014, Dhisti Desai, Innocent Desire, page 107:
They clicked some pictures outside his sea facing bungalow and left dejected again.2017, Pankaj Upadhyay, Homecoming:
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India To achieve success in one's career or a breakthrough, often the first time.
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India Of a film, to be successful at the box office.
click
intj
Etymology Imitative of the "click" sound; first recorded in the 1500s. Compare Saterland Frisian klikke (“to click”), Middle Dutch clicken (Modern Dutch: klikken (“to click”)), Old High German klecchen (Modern German: klecken, klicken (“to click”)), Danish klikke (“to click”), Swedish klicka (“to click”), Norwegian klikke (“to click”), Norwegian klekke (“to hatch”).
Etymology From Middle English cleken, a variant of clechen (“to grab”), perhaps from Old English *clēċan, *clǣċan, a byform of clyċċan (“to clutch”). More at clutch.
‘I take 'em to prevent abuses,’ Cants he, and then the Crucifix And Chalice from the Altar clicks.1716, Thomas Ward, England's Reformation:
click
noun
Etymology From Middle English cleken, a variant of clechen (“to grab”), perhaps from Old English *clēċan, *clǣċan, a byform of clyċċan (“to clutch”). More at clutch.