to tickle someone's tummy

7.2

Touch someone's belly lightly in a playful way to make them laugh

phrasal verb
/ˈtɪkəl ˈsʌmˌwʌnz ˈtʌmi/

: hacer cosquillas en la barriga

Every afternoon, he would tickle his little sister's tummy until she giggled.

Examples

She loves it when her dad tickles her tummy to make her laugh.
The playful puppy tried to tickle the baby's tummy with its nose.
Tickle my tummy!

Mickey Blue Eyes (1999)

Synonyms

to tickle

vsto tickle someone's tummy

94 1.0

To touch someone lightly so they feel a tingle or laugh

focuses on repeated playful touches to the stomach that make someone laugh

to boop

vsto tickle someone's tummy

Texting

1 8.1

To touch a nose or cheek lightly as a playful act

involves repeated playful touches to the stomach aiming to cause laughter

Antonyms

to upset

362 1.0

Make someone feel sad or worried

Surface Forms

tickle someone's tummy infinitive

tickled someone's tummy past

tickled someone's tummy past participle

tickling someone's tummy present participle

tickles someone's tummy third person singular

Morphology

tickle + someone's + tummy

The meaning 'to touch someone's stomach lightly and repeatedly in a playful way to make them laugh' is directly derivable from the constituent words: 'tickle' (touch lightly to make laugh) + 'someone's' (possessive) + 'tummy' (belly). This is a straightforward verb + possession + body-part construction that is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows the individual words will readily infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

Tickle someone's tummy comes from the playful picture of using your fingers to tickle a person's tummy, making them laugh or giggle. So it means 'to touch someone's stomach in a fun way to make them laugh'.