Meaning of tickle the ivories | Babel Free

Definitions

To play a piano or other keyboard instrument.

informal, intransitive

Examples

“[…] Charles Jarvis, the Philadelphia pianist, […] tickled the ivories with old time unction and gave some of the audience the impression that Philadelphia was really a musical city.”

“In music the Company now stands very high. Our singing strength surpasses anything known in the history of the command. It was feared that there would be no one to spar with the piano when Charley Moran left us, but you just ought to see the Leussen brothers tickle the ivories.”

“I don't think your musical friend is much on the grub-box. Has to keep her hands white to tickle the ivories.”

“In stroll Harpo [Marx] with his $12,000 harp (and he plays it, too), and Chico [Marx], who tickles the ivories in anything from jazz to Beethoven, and the party is complete.”

“[Henry Louis] Mencken, more a music lover than a musician, sometimes tickled the ivories in a repertory of Beethoven, Bach, Strauss and W[illiam] C[hristopher] Handy.”

“The highlight of these evenings was when the band set up— […] Men in gold lamé suits with crushed velvet collars and black trim on the pockets took the platform—you hesitated to call it a stage—and started tickling the ivories, plucking the bass, and—our favorite of all—brushing the snare drum: Ch-che-che, ch-che-che, ch-che-che.”

CEFR level