Definition of "vellicate" [vel•li•cate]

• To touch (a body part) lightly so as to excite the surface nerves and cause uneasiness, laughter, or spasmodic movements (verb)
• To irritate as if by a nip, pinch, or tear (verb)
• To pinch (verb)
• Make to twitch (verb)

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• "There can be no doubt that bodies which are rough and angular, rouse and vellicate the organs of feeling, causing a sense of pain, which consists in the violent tension or contraction of the muscular fibres."
• "Some think these almonds have a penetrating, abstersive quality, are able to cleanse the face, and clear it from the common freckles; and therefore, when they are eaten, by their bitterness vellicate and fret the pores, and by that means draw down the ascending vapors from the head."
• "But our baths now inflame, vellicate, and distress; and the air which we draw is a mixture of air and water, disturbs the whole body, tosses and displaces every atom, till we quench the fiery particles and allay their heat."