click

Forms

1.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.
2.The act of snapping one's fingers.
3.An ingressive sound made by coarticulating a velar or uvular closure with another closure.
4.The sound made by a dolphin.

1.To snap one's fingers.
2.To press and release (a button on a computer mouse).
3.To cause to make a click; to operate (a switch, etc) so that it makes a click.
- She clicked back the bolt which held the window sash.
- 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.
4.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.

Uncommon· #2177

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