Green’s Dictionary of Slang

lickety-split adv.

(orig. US) fast, with some onomat. overtones.

1831		Boston Transcript 4 June 2/2: He ran down the street licketty cut, and is probably at home by this time [DA].
1847		J.S. Robb Streaks of Squatter Life 116: Away they started, ‘lickety-click,’ and arrived at the winning-post within touching distance of each other.
1856		Tiffin Trib. (OH) 14 Nov. 1/7: he went in, backed down, hacked, cut and slashed, lickety-split, with his long spear.
1858		Harper’s Mag. May 766/2: There they had it, lickety-switch, rough-and-tumble, till Cephe give in [DA].
1860		Cleveland Morn. Leader 22 Nov. 2/3: We all rushed lickety-cut up Hicks street.
1871		H.B. Stowe Sam Lawson’s Oldtown Fireside Stories (1881) 100: He jest ran that ’are fellow up stairs lickety split.
1875		M. Thompson Hoosier Mosaics 121: ‘Hoot-toot!’ says the whistle, and away lick-to-split went the train.
1876		Wide Awake 236/2: You can’t describe a boy running down hill without saying he went ‘lickety-split,’ or ‘lickety brindle’ [DA].
1882		Iola Register (KS) 20 Jan. 6/3: When you hear me holler [...] come over lickety-split.
1887		E. Custer Tenting on the Plains (rev. edn 1895) 30: He jest pushed down his ole hat, and went after ’em linkerty-clink.
1887		Dly Yellowstone Jrnl (White City, MT) 13 Feb. 4/3: The way Norwegian horses have of going at a breakneck pace [...] reminds me of our boyish expression, ‘lickety cut’.
1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 7 Dec. 7/4: ‘He [i.e. a runaway horse] was going lickety-cut’.
1891		Sun. Herald (Wash., DC) 27 Dec. 16/1: Bicycles are a nuisance [...] I saw two coming lickety-split from the opposite direction.
1894		Harper’s Mag. Apr. 693/2: She’s goin’ down street lickety-switch [DA].
1895		S. Crane Red Badge of Courage (1964) 69: There’s a batt’ry comin’ helitywhoop down th’ road.
1895		Eve. Star (Wash., DC) 11 Jan. 13/4: He went lickety switch.
1898		E.N. Westcott David Harum 175: I up an’ put fer the village lickity-cut.
1899		H. Garland Boy Life on the Prairie 393: Yes, it’s him coming licketty-split.
1900		Philipsburg Mail (MT) 11 May 3/3: Off he started, lickety-click.
1903		G.D. Chase ‘Cape Cod Dialect’ in DN II:v 302: Various phrases are used to describe the speed of an animal, as ‘he went clear streak-it,’ or ‘clear lick-it,’ or lickety split or lickety-cut.
1904		E. Robins Magnetic North 177: We’ll go buy Pymeut in an ice-boat, lickety-split.
1905		Eve. Star (Wash., DC) 13 mar. 8/6: ‘Ah! here’s a broader street’ —going lickety-clip into Vermont.
1905		‘Central Connecticut Word-List’ in DN III:i 6: clip, v. [...] ‘He ran lickerty clip’.
1906		L.A. Herald 14 Oct. 36/2: The whole thing’s bound to come to a-tearin’ and swirlin’ down here lickety-cut.
1907		Holt Co. Sentinel (Oregon, MO) 31 May 6/2: He [...] chooses the animal he wants, maddens it, makes it chase him. Lickety-split, lickety-split.
1909		Wash. Herald 3 Jan. 36/5: He tuk after the fox lickety-clip.
1911		Sun (NY) 4 May 14/2: Kemps [...] drove lickety-split back to East Eighty-fourth street.
1912		R.W. Brown ‘Word-List From Western Indiana’ in DN III:viii 581: lickety-brindle, adv. Very swiftly. ‘He was going lickety-brindle when I saw him’. lickety-cut, adv. Very swiftly. ‘That old horse was coming down the hill lickety-cut’.
1912		T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 35: The track was fast. The horses were at the quarter mile, and still going lickity split fat chance.
1914		Ogden Standard 22 Aug. 13/1: It’s out of shoes for him and lickety cut across lots and fields to the big creek.
1918		El Paso Herald (TX) 13 Mar. 8/4: [advert] I’ll Bring Women Here Lickety Split For These Dresser Scarfs at 25c Each.
1919		Wodehouse Damsel in Distress (1961) 96: Do you know, m’lady, after a chicken’s ’ead is cut orf, it goes running licketty-split?
1921		N. Putnam West Broadway 106: The other Colby [...] was by now heading back the way it had come, lickety-split, or as lickety-split as the road would allow.
1929		J. Sale Tree Named John 55: He jes h’ist his tail, he do, en gits ’way f’um dat lickety-split.
1935		Z.N. Hurston Mules and Men (1995) 154: So de sun lit out and de porpoise took out. Him and him! ’Round de world-lickety split!
1946		B. Cerf Anything For a Laugh 27: A varmint comes lickety split around the corner.
1953		R. Mais Hills were Joyful Together (1966) 57: The wind [...] going lickety-spit.
1958		T. Capote Breakfast at Tiffany’s 81: Trees, a lake with little-boy sailboats, statues went by licketysplit.
1961		M. Terry Old Liberty (1962) 117: I was going licketysplickety, feet together, like a water-skier.
1965		H. Rhodes Chosen Few (1966) 239: I hears two automobiles drive off. One kinda lickety spit and n’udder jus’ nat’chel like.
1978		L. Kramer Faggots 101: He went from mail room to board room in lickety-split time.
1982		P. Theroux London Embassy 42: He saw a guy running across the road, dodging cars, coming lickety-split.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 85: Lickitysplit she ran into the bathroom, peeled off the icky jeans.
2002		J. Ridley Conversation with the Mann 40: Two middle-aged guys and a younger one tag stepping at lickety-split speed.
2005		Mad mag. Apr. 50: Lickity split! Yer darn tootin’.
2018		‘Aidan Truhen’ Price You Pay 80: [Y]ou put them on over whatever you’re already wearing and lickety split you’re somebody new.

In phrases

go lickety-split (v.) [pun on split n. (3a)]

to give oral sex to a woman.

1997		B. Giandomenico ‘Limerick Contest’ at ToastPoint.com 🌐 Through the woods rabbits lustily flit / Just as fast as their legs will permit. / Fornicating non-stop, / They go hippity-hop; / If they’re French, they go lickety-split.
2002		‘Shades of Sex 2’ Rev. on AdultDVDTalk 🌐 Mark fucks each of the girls as they go lickety-split on each other in a 69 and in a line as he fucks each of them from behind.