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tyke

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tyke¹

  • /taɪk/

Rhymes with -aɪk

Where it comes from

From Middle English tike, tyke, from Old Norse tík (“female dog”), from Proto-Germanic *tīkō. Compare Icelandic tík, Faroese tík, and Swedish tik, all meaning “bitch, female dog”.

noun tykes · tike

  1. dialectal A mongrel dog. It was the day of warlocks and apparitions, now happily driven out by the zeal of the General Assembly. Witches pursued their wanchancy calling, bairns were spirited away, young lassies selled their souls to the Evil One, and the Accuser of the Brethren, in the shape of a black tyke, was seen about

    Similar: mongrel, mutt

  2. colloquial A small child, especially a cheeky or mischievous one. Manipulative little tyke I was.
  3. Canada, colloquial Designating an initiation level of sports competition for young children.
  4. UK, dated An uncultured, crude and unrefined or uncouth ill-bred person. Why, the inquiry thing, the yellow-dog thing—you wouldn’t think a mangy, native tyke would be allowed to trip up people in the verandah of a magistrate’s court, would you?
  5. UK, informal A person from Yorkshire; a Yorkshireman or Yorkshirewoman.

Similar: ankle-biter, nipper, tot

Tyke²

Where it comes from

Perhaps a derogatory nickname from Old Norse tík, 'bitch, female dog' (compare English tyke, Icelandic tík). Less likely to be from Old Norse þýzkr, 'of one's nation' or an Old English cognate (compare German deutsch, Swedish tysk).

proper noun

  1. A dialect, also known as Yorkshire, spoken in the county of Yorkshire.

noun Tykes

  1. UK, informal a Yorkshireman or Yorkshirewoman; a Yorkshire person
  2. slang someone connected with Barnsley Football Club, as a fan, player, coach, etc.

Thesaurus

noun

Similar: ankle-biter, nipper, tot

Translations

Every language

noun small child

Françaisgamin
DeutschLümmel, Schlingel, Lausbube

noun mongrel dog

Françaisbâtard

noun A Yorkshire person

日本語ヨークシャー人 Yōkushājin
中文約克郡人 /约克郡人 Yuēkèjùn

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Cite this
MLA

"tyke." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/tyke. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

tyke. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/tyke

Chicago

"tyke." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/tyke.

BibTeX
@misc{tyke_2026,
  title = {tyke},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/tyke},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}