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Licking is the action, usually by an animal, including a human, using its tongue to pass over or along a surface or to take in liquid. As many animals are unable to drink in the same fashion as humans, licking is the only way they are able to take in fluids.

Because of the universality and intimate nature of licking, its etymology can often be traced back to or, in a forward maner, punned, joked or insinuated into some reference to sexuality or more innocent forms of human physical intimacy.

In humans

Consumption

Humans often consume food and drinks by licking; for example ice cream or lollipops are consumed in this way, perhaps most famously Tootsie Pops. Popsicles and most candy-on-a-stick, such as suckers, are intended to primarily be licked. Consuming ice cream in this manner ensures that the cold substance does not touch immediately onto the teeth - this can be painful if one suffers from sensitive teeth or dental caries, causing toothache.

For humans, licking a plate to eat the last bits of food is often considered uncivilized.

Finger licking good is a successful slogan for fried chicken.

Moonshine is sometimes referred to as "corn licker" (liquor), but the etymology might be a humorous back-woods reference for felatio ("corn-cob licker" would have been more clear).

In reading

Humans often lick things to wet them, e.g. stamps or envelopes, and a finger to make it less slippery, e.g. to turn a page, or otherwise separate sheets of papers.

Sexual relations

Humans may also lick their sexual partner for sensual pleasure (see oral sex). Perhaps most grotesque is the practice of anal-oral contact (note 14th century manuscript with polemic depicting sodomy). Note that not all licking is strictly sexual. A form of intimate contact which involves non-sexual penetration is one person sticking their tongue in the other's ear canal as an erogenous zone. See also nasolingus and oculolinctus. "Lick the cheese" is an abominable reference to smegma. By comparison, "lick the lollipop" is a rather tame reference to felatio and "licking one out" is a reference to cunnilingus. More generally, licking as a form of intimate contact has an act with a high level of committment because all five human sense organs are rather directly invovled or proximate, as opposed to traditional copulation which can degenerate to a routine or even impersonal experience. In particular, personal hygene becomes important (in particular, a lemony-scented douche to mask the fishy smell for the ladies is vital for inexperienced couples if the lady wishes the expereince to be attempted by her partner ever again) as taste and smell are difficult to separate in normal huamn experience.

Sometimes food or a drink (e.g. whipped cream or a jello shot) is put on a person, and somebody else licks it off, combining sensual pleasure and the pleasure of consuming the food or drink.

Suckling of any sort almost invariably involves licking, as well as sucking, in all mammals.

Most pornographic movies dipict at least some licking, and it is sometimes highlighted, such as in the aptly-named Let's Lick Dick.

Michael Jackson was accused to licking the top of the side of his victim's face and licking is explicitly mentioned in many laws aimed at protecting minors from sexual assault.

In this advice comlumn, the "Ask the Vet" write advices the new wife to cover her husbands toes with hamburger grease to convert the behavior of her pet chihuahua from biting the husband's toes "every time he touches her" to merely licking her husband's toes, thereby giving them the requistit 20 minutes needed for their "lights out business". Chihuahua's Poor Bed Manners Endanger New Marriage

Jefferson Poland licked his victim in a manner that is expressly prohibited by law in that State.

Entertainment

Gene Simmons of the band KISS has a fairly long tongue that he would display in a characteristic licking fashion to the viewer, suggestive of a snake or perhaps lacivious intent or perhaps simply in the manner of a gargoyle. One of their albums is called Lick It Up.

"Chicken Licken" is used in many contexts, including Funk Music. In the movie The Mechanic, Jan-Michael Vincent uses a imposter-deliveryman salutation "Chicken Lickin is licking chicken." possiblity to suggest a lacivious pun.

Forty Licks the name of a Rolling Stones album, with the famous licking tongue logo. The title is a pun with lick (music).

KLEC call itself LICK, with a logo of a tongue akin to the Rolling Stones logo.

Lick My Decals Off, Baby, not surprisingly, was released at the height of the sexual revolution.

I Wanna Lick the Pussy by White Dawg is an obvious pun.

Lickitung is a Pokémon character.

Another very successful advertising slogan by Timex Corporation: "It takes a licking but it keeps on ticking."

The album Chaosphere contains a track with the obscure title of The Mouth Licking What You've Bled (possible reference to menstration?).

David Hare wrote a tevision script entitled Licking Hitler about a young U.K. woman who is drafted into a propaganda unit during World War II. The title is meant in the sense of defeating Hitler.

"Licking the flagpole" in winter is a common humorous tale where the tastebuds become frozen to the metal, leaving the licker in a foolish position until warm water can be applied. An example of this took place in the movie Dumb and Dumber, where Harry, played by Jeff Daniels, licked the metal pole of a ski lift.

Gid Tanner and his band The Skillet Lickers was an important early band in country music. There is also Lavay Smith and her Red Hot Skillet Lickers (obvious joke as to which is Red Hot and whether third degree burns are involved) and a third singing group called The Skillet Lickers. There is also Skillet Licker products.

The third verse of the well-known camp-fire song goes, along with gesticulations of licking ones hand's whereupon the remains of the demonlished insect adhere, along the lines of:

I'm licking up my baby bumble bee
Won't my mommy be so proud of me
I'm licking up my baby bumble bee
Ugh, I don't feel so good!

In Frankenstein: The True Story, Jane Seymour plays the female monster who is very beautiful and elegantly dressed at a ball, and is trained in ediquette, but when the back of her hand is cut and slightly bleeds, she very happily and deliberately licks off the blood to remind the viewer of her character's unrefined mind.

In Blade Runner, Roy uses his tongue to push the dead Pris' tongue back into her mouth.

Animals

Many animals, such as dogs and cats consume liquid by licking. Pet rodents usually consume all of their hydration by licking a sipper water bottle.

Animals will also lick the bodies of themselves and other of their species to groom themselves, resulting in hairballs in some species. An episode of Ren and Stimpy The Great Outdoors/The Cat That Laid the Golden Hairball very nearly exhausts the humourous possibilties of this concept.

Licking is an important stimulus for trophallaxis in some mammals.

Most animals will lick wounds and sores, both their own and each other's. To prevent an animal from licking and biting their own sutures, they might be fitted with an Elizabethan collar. In defeat, both animal and human go to "lick their wounds" and, in the wild, the cleaning action may help in combating infection. "Licking your wounds" is also sometimes incorrectly used to suggest "nursing a grudge".

In the parable of Lazarus and Dives, Lazarus had sores that were licked by dogs at the gates of Dives' mansion. When both men die, Dives, in the flames of Hell, begs for Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and, presumably to either stick it in Dives' mouth or allow him to lick it, and "cool my tongue" as every other square inch of his body suffered hideously painful yet miraculously non-fatal (such is God's mercy) third-degree burns, with Hades' flames licking and painfully probing into every crack and crevice.

Dogs, exspecially puppies, if permitted, will invariably sniff and lick the hands and faces of their human owners as a greeting.

Snakes lick the air as a means of what amounts to sense of smell.

There is an urban legend of The Licked Hand.

Psychoactive toads can tempt people into toad licking.

Big cats usually have exceptionally rough tongues. Tamed tigers, if allowed to lick human skin down to rawness, which they do instictively and incessantly, can draw blood within minutes merely by eroding this skin down to the live dermis. This assists in eating their prey down to picked-clean bones quickly and efficiently and, even in licking the last trace of blood and gore off of their own furry faces. Close-up of lioness

That most four-legged mammals lick their anus and private parts segues easily to insulting humour, such as The Lion and the Minnesota Tourist.

In many mammals, especially those where the mother is inclined to eat the afterbirth, extensive licking of the newborn is involved, perhaps to help quickly get the fur to stand up on end and thereby protect the newborn from chill.

Generally, out in the wild, the search for food involves see, sniff, lick and eat, aborting the sequence if a bad or poisonous sensation occurs. For a child in a modern home, many safeguards have to be taken to protect the child from bad outcomes from this inborn behavior. If a logistical problem slows the sequence down, then one might lick one's lips to control drooling in anticipation. Note that anticipation for alimentation or sex is very similar, e.g. chocolate on licking chin, dripping down to young adult human female sternum where chocolate syrup, berry sauce, the aformentioned dairy products (with obvious extra reference to milk from breasts) on the chin and chest, etc can be used to unify and pun or ambiguate the concept.

Hummingbirds are known to lick their chicks after a rainstorm, ironically, to dry them by licking water droplets from their coats.

Place names

• Licking County, Ohio and Licking River
• Licking Creek Township, Pennsylvania
• Roanoke, Virginia was originally called "Big Lick"
• French Lick, Indiana
• Big Bone Lick State Park
• William Cabell (American Revolution) was born in Licking Hole, Goochland County, Virginia
• Licking, Missouri including a Licking R-VIII School District
• Gary Licking is the owner of the Licking Bison archaeology site near Buffalo, South Dakota.
• Many other places in North America have the name "Lick" in them because of the name is inspired by a nearby salt lick.

Other uses

• Licking may also describe the rapid or lapping effect of water or flames of fire: the water licked the side of the boat.

As noun (lick)

• A lick can also be a hard stroke or swat, usually with an implement (maybe because it causes a burning sensation, and/or because it reddens the skin, as in 'tanning'), as part of a spanking etcetera
  • Hence a licking can mean a corporal punishment comprising several painful licks.

• A lick can also often describe the appliance of a substance such as paint: a lick of paint. As a colloquialism, it can mean a small amount such as That boy don't have a lick of sense.

See also

• Lick (disambiguation page)

External Links

• A Wisdom Archive on licking, Global Oneness and cats

• Pages for deletion