Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also click with) to get on with, to strike up a friendship with.

c.1910		Weston & Lee [perf. Daisy Dormer] ‘Ain’ It Nice?’ 🎵 He stand till eleven, or perhaps ten past / Mother doesn't mind, she thinks you've clicked at last.
1917		C. Sommers Temporary Crusaders 1 Dec. 🌐 One of them ‘clicked’ with a gunner, and after five minutes they had arranged to be married in Upper Tooting ‘après la guerre!’.
1922		in S. Armitage John Held 151: And oh! How she clicks with the rural Sheik!
1924		(con. WWI) A.G. Pretty Gloss. of Sl. [...] in the A.I.F. 1921–1924 (rev. t/s) n.p.: click. To promiscuously make the acquaintance of a young lady.
1925		S. O’Casey Juno and the Paycock Act I: You’re goin’ to meet another fella; you’ve clicked with someone else, me lady!
1926		Boys’ Realm 16 Jan. 264: ‘You’ve clicked!’ he said. [...] ‘He’s going to sign you on’.
1930		K. Brush Young Man of Manhattan 204: ‘We click,’ he thought, approving her. They would get along.
1935		(con. 1920s) McArthur & Long No Mean City 214: If An canny click wi’ Lizzie, Ah can click right enough wi’ some of the ithers.
1939		R. Chandler Big Sleep 119: He married General Sternmwood’s eldest daughter and [...] they didn’t click.
1947		N. Algren Neon Wilderness (1986) 286: Him an’ the kid hadn’t never clicked much anyhow.
1958		A. Sillitoe Sat. Night and Sun. Morning 62: Our Betty clicked wi’ a bloke.
1959		E. De Roo Go, Man, Go! 95: ‘Can’t,’ he shook his head. [...] ‘Why? We click good together.’.
1960		Wodehouse Jeeves in the Offing 41: Though going like a breeze with dachshunds, I had failed signally to click with Wilbert Cream.
1960		G. Swarthout Where the Boys Are 25: We had clicked.
1971		Wodehouse Much Obliged, Jeeves 4: They clicked immediately.
1988		R. Doyle Commitments 64: Look, righ’, you could’ve tried to click with her yourself.
1993		K. Scott Monster (1994) 14: He clicked right away with the others, too.
1999		Indep. on Sun. Rev. 15 Aug. 35: We clicked and became close friends.
2003		G. Tate Midnight Lightning 87: Me and the girl clicked immediately.
2010		A. Steinberg Running the Books 157: Miller and I had never clicked.

2. to become proficient or successful at, to come together.

1912		E. Pugh City Of The World 270: ‘One consolation, though,’ he chuckled, ‘the bookie don’t stand to click much, either way.’.
1919		Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 10 June 8/2: He was coming home to England to get some brass, and [...] when he’d clicked for it, we’d make it go.
1923		G. Marx letter 16 Aug. in Groucho Letters (1967) 147: He went smack into a vaudeville monologue he used to do before he clicked as a legit actor on Broadway.
1923		Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves 31: ‘Did you click?’ ‘If you mean was I successful, I must answer in the negative.’.
1932		J. Dixon Free To Love 207: Wouldn’t it be stunning if the diary clicks?
1936		R. Chandler ‘Goldfish’ in Red Wind (1946) 156: And the twenty grand, if you click. Of course you won’t.
1944		J.T. Farrell ‘High-School Star’ in To Whom It May Concern 105: He’d had a good workout. Now, at last, he was in condition and clicking.
1949		Wodehouse Mating Season 121: Oh, yes, he clicked. Jeeves always clicks.
1951		Green & Laurie Show Biz from Vaude to Video 547: Bing Crosby and his son Gary clicked with ‘Sam’s Song’.
1960		J.P. Donleavy Fairy Tales of N.Y. II ii: Cornelius, as a personal favour I’m asking you right now to take this job. I know everything’s going to click.
1965		W. Dick Bunch of Ratbags 255: There was a thousand and one reasons why Elvis had to click, and boy, he really clicked!
1977		Sun. Mirror 21 Aug. 8: Eventually with a song called That’s Alright Mama, the formula clicked.
1989		(con. 1982–6) T. Williams Cocaine Kids (1990) 136: click to come through at the right time for a friend (or a date).
1999		K. Sampson Powder 8: Everything clicked.
2018		J.-P. Jordan Joys of War 95: [M]y two associates clicked on to this [i.e. collecting war funds], just organizing it themselves and pocketing the money .

3. to work out exactly as planned.

1925		(con. WWI) Fraser & Gibbons Soldier and Sailor Words 58: Click, To: To meet with good (or bad) luck.
1929		J. Lait Broadway Melody 68: Did they slip you the half-a-grand trick? [...] It’s a standard racket. They got eighty-four more if that one don’t click.
1938		R. Chandler ‘Red Wind’ in Red Wind (1946) 18: If it don’t click, you’ll be in for a day on the steel picture-racks downstairs.
1942		W.R. Burnett Quick Brown Fox 125: If the article clicked, he might be able to make a connection with one of the big-circulation magazines.
1957		H. Simmons Corner Boy 88: Soon as the elections come along, I’ll have everything clicking just right.
1964		H.S. Thompson letter 28 April in Proud Highway (1997) 452: I’m glad that clicked.
1999		Observer Rev. 27 June 6: Not everything clicks: the melodrama grows a little overheated.

4. for something to become clear or comprehensible, esp. after a period of puzzlement, to ‘ring a bell’.

1916		T. Burke Limehouse Nights 284: ‘That you, Monico?’ she asked, peering through the gloom. ‘You’ve clicked.’.
1924		D. Hammett ‘Death on Pine Street’ in Nightmare Town (2001) 203: Suddenly all the facts I had gathered [...] clicked together in my head. I had the answer.
1930		J. Lait Gangster Girl 81: I got a slant at you an’ you clicked.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 331: Then suddenly the right formula clicks and the whole thing resolves itself.
1954		Wodehouse Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit 194: A dashed good suggestion, I thought, and it might quite easily have clicked.
1977		(con. late 1960s) Nicholson & Smith Spend, Spend, Spend (1978) 207: I don’t know, something didn’t click with me.
1982		G. Newbold Big Huey 20: All of a sudden it clicked. It was the same goddamned deal!
1999		Indep. on Sun. Real Life 24 Oct. 5: He’s clicked that the best way to get publicity is for a bunch of lovelies to strike a rapport with match spectators.
2000		Observer 30 Jan. 14: It takes a while before it clicks that it’s me they want to talk to.

5. to be recognized.

1917

A.G. Empey Over the Top 37: Shut your blinkin’ mouth, you bloomin’ idiot; do you want us to click it from the Boches?’.

6. (orig. Irish) to pick up a member of the opposite sex; thus clicking n.

1918		Aussie (France) 9 Dec. 3/1: [M]y cobber and I were taking a stroll when two nice bits of fluff blew along. They showed signs that they were not averse to relieving the loneliness of two homeless soldiers from overseas; so after the usual preliminaries we successfully clicked.
1939		V. Davis Gentlemen of the Broad Arrows 97: He fancied himself as a bit of a lady-killer, and I guessed he was trying to ‘click’.
1958		A. Sillitoe Sat. Night and Sun. Morning 133: I’ve clicked, he said, stepping on to the pavement; I’ve clicked—walking down the street.
1961		(con. 1930s) D. Behan Teems of Times and Happy Returns 102: They’re all shaven [...] so as they won’t start clickin’ fellas.
1972		N. Conway Bloods 22: Many’s the soldier has had his name taken for linking the mot he’s just clicked on these streets.
1981		(con. 1930s) P. Crosbie Your Dinner’s Poured Out! 117: They were of course, chasing women, but the Dublin phrase was more picturesque – ‘clickin’ mots’. The favourite place for ‘clickin’ mots’ was the main road of Phoenix Park.
1984		P. Barker Blow Your House Down 19: Audrey clicked first. Brenda made a great show of taking the number.
1994		(con. 1920s) K.C. Kearns Dublin Tenement Life 46: When May Hanaphy and one of her pals went clicking back in the 1920s it was a perfectly proper way to meet a prospective husband: ‘Oh, clicking then was very popular. See, that’s how flirting went on [...] We’d go clicking along mostly O’Connell Street or maybe down Henry Street, you know, slow walking ... strolling, and two fellas’d come along and say ‘there’s two mots’.’.
2002		O’Byrne Files: Dublin Sl. Dict. 🌐 Click v. , n. Pick up a member of the opposite sex.

7. to be chosen, to be selected.

1917		A.G. Empey Over the Top Ch. xiv: I had not slept long before the sweet voice of the Sergeant informed that ‘No. I Section had clicked for another blinking digging party.’.
1921		(con. WWI) E. Lynch Somme Mud 227: I’ve clicked for a good job with the billeting officer.
1922		‘J.H. Ross’ Mint (1955) 44: In under a week we have clicked three or four fire-pickets.
1927		(con. WW1) P. MacDonald Patrol 71: [of a dead soldier] ‘Why the — hell [...] should he click before a — like that choot of a Jew-boy, or that tin-faced Bible-thrasher?’.