Meaning
Greatly pleased, amused, or delighted. Informal and warm in tone, typically used about reactions to compliments, invitations, or good news. Informal, affectionate register; slightly old-fashioned or folksy in contemporary use. Regional use: American English origin; now General English.
Origin
The verb 'tickle' had meant to please or gratify since the 17th century (The Phrase Finder cites Samuel Hieron's Works of 1617 on ears 'ticled with some pleasing noise'), and 'tickled to death' appeared by 1907 as a forerunner. The 'pink' belongs to a family of expressions in which pinkness stands for healthy rosy glow, as in 'in the pink'. The Phrase Finder's earliest citation for 'tickled pink' itself is from 1910, in the Illinois newspaper The Daily Review: 'Grover Laudermilk was tickled pink over Kinsella's move'; its unexplained use in print suggests readers already knew it, though it likely did not circulate much before then. Dictionary.com instead dates first recorded use to 1922, so the exact first citation varies slightly by source, but early-20th-century American origin is agreed.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- tickled pink to
- tickled to death
- tickled to pieces
Usage Examples
- My grandmother was tickled pink when the choir sang her favourite hymn on her ninetieth birthday.
- He was tickled pink to learn his sculpture had been accepted for the municipal collection.
- The students were tickled pink that the professor postponed the quiz.