tyke
/tʌɪk
/(also tike)
noun
1 informal A small child, especially a cheeky or mischievous one: is the little tyke up to his tricks again?...
- Hey, not all kids are irrepressible, mischievous, restless tykes!
- Whilst trying to make the melodies inaccessible, these cheeky tykes from Ozzy's old home city have only gone and made them all the more appealing.
- Adults dig the clever scripts and inside jokes, while little tykes think the girls are adorable and thrill to their fast-paced adventures.
1.1 [usually as modifier] Canadian An initiation level of sports competition for young children: tyke hockey...
- It traces Little League to its roots in 1939 and offers lots of photos and displays of uniforms and caps worn by tyke players over the years.
- These tiny lads were barely past tyke stage and were costumed in huge, puffy, fuzzy, brightly colored bee suits with little matching caps and antennae.
2 dated, chiefly British An unpleasant or coarse man.This spunky St-Michel tyke has been working the local wrestling circuit for the past five years and has been fanatical about pro-wrestling since childhood....
- But as the years went on and he started receiving close to 1,000 spam e-mails a day, this determined tyke decided to take action.
3A dog, especially a mongrel.It hasn't helped either asking dog owners to carry a plastic bag to pick up any poo their tyke drops.
4 (also Yorkshire tyke) British informal A person from Yorkshire: Geordies and tykes have never got on particularly well...
- Sweet making giant Cadbury has been accused of tampering with the taste buds of Yorkshire tykes.
- The secret's out, as the 4,000 sweaty Mancs who witness the Yorkshire tykes triumph will tell you.
- if you want to meet and network with your fellow Yorkshire tykes then join the Yorkshire academy here
5Australian /NZ informal, derogatory A Roman Catholic.
Early 20th century: alteration of Taig
Origin
Late Middle English (sense 2, sense 3): from Old Norse tík 'bitch'.
The word tyke (from Old Norse tík ‘bitch’) was first a term for a dog, especially a mongrel. It quickly became a rough man and then a Yorkshire tyke, ‘a person from Yorkshire’, before being used as an affectionate term for a cheeky child. In Australia and New Zealand tyke is an offensive term for a Roman Catholic. This is an alteration of Taig, a Northern Ireland Protestant's insulting name for a Catholic, from the Irish name Tadhg, which has been used since the 17th century as a nickname for an Irishman.