Former lover referred to getting tickled (7)
I believe the answer is:
excited
'tickled' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'former lover referred to getting' is the wordplay.
'former lover' becomes 'ex'.
'referred to' becomes 'cited' ('cite' can be a synonym of 'refer to').
'getting' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'ex'+'cited'='EXCITED'
(Other definitions for excited that I've seen before include "Agog" , "Worked up" , "In a stir" , "Animated" , "Jubilant" .)