tick

A relatively quiet but sharp sound generally made repeatedly by moving machinery.

Noun

  1. A relatively quiet but sharp sound generally made repeatedly by moving machinery.
    • The steady tick of the clock provided a comforting background for the conversation.
  2. A mark on any scale of measurement; a unit of measurement.
    • At midday, the long bond is up a tick.
  3. A jiffy (unit of time defined by basic timer frequency).
  4. A short period of time, particularly a second.
    • I'll be back in a tick.

    Synonyms: jiffy sec tic bat of an eye bit blink of an eye crack eyeblink flash glimpse half a mo instant jiff jot minute mo moment New York minute New York second no time second span split-second spurt

  5. A periodic increment of damage or healing caused by an ongoing status effect.
  6. Each of the fixed time periods, in a tick-based game, in which players or characters may perform a set number of actions.
  7. A mark (✓) made to indicate agreement, correctness, or acknowledgement.
    • Indicate that you are willing to receive marketing material by putting a tick in the box
    • Kate's choice to don her pink suit again now, at the height of the Barbiecore trend, shows the royal really does have her finger on the pulse. That, paired with her statement belt and the fact pearls are having a real...

    Synonyms: checkmark

  8. A bird seen (or heard) by a birdwatcher, for the first time that day, year, trip, etc., and thus added to a list of observed birds.
    • There are few birders who have not had stringy ticks on their lists at some stage. - 1980, Bill Oddie, Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book, page 76:
    • A twitcher's list is very democratic. Each bird counts as one tick. There are no extra points for beauty or rarity. The humble sparrow counts just as much as a Wedge-tailed Eagle or a Paradise Parrot. - 2005, Sean...
  9. A whinchat (Saxicola rubetra).
  10. A tap or light touch.
  11. A slight speck.

Origin

From Middle English *tik, tek, tyche (“light touch, tap”), from the verb (see Etymology 3 below). Compare Dutch tik (“a pat, tap”), Middle High German zic (“a slight touch”).

Forms

ticks

Derived

armchair tick backtick bedtick birdcatcher tick bluetick blue tick downtick foul tick megatick subtick tick-based tick box ticker ticking tickless tick mark tick-tack ticktacktoe tic-tac-toe tick-tock ticky to a tick uptick

Noun Entry 2

  1. Ticking.
  2. A sheet that wraps around a mattress; the cover of a mattress, containing the filling.
    • She had an old tick for mattress that she stuffed with dried moss. - 1997, Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain, London: Hodder and Stoughton, page 101:

Origin

From Middle English tike, probably from Middle Dutch tike and Middle Low German teke, both ultimately from Latin theca (“cover”). Compare also German Zieche (“duvet, pillowcase”).

Forms

ticks

Synonyms

ticking

Derived

ticking

Noun Entry 3

  1. A tiny woodland arachnid of the suborder Ixodida.
    • Sucking up all you can / Sucking up all you can suck and suck / Working up under my patience like a little tick / Fat little parasite (parasite) / Suck me dry / My fruit is bruised and borrowed / You thieving bastards /...

    Hypernyms: arachnid arthropod bug invertebrate animal creature critter

    Coordinate Terms: mite spider scorpion insect

Origin

From Middle English tyke, teke, from Old English ticia (“parasitic animal, tick”), from Proto-West Germanic *tīkō, compare Dutch teek, German Zecke.

Forms

ticks

Derived

antitick Australian paralysis tick bat tick beggartick black-legged tick blood tick castor bean tick cattle tick deer tick detick dog tick full as a tick hard tick Indian tick typhus kangaroo tick Kenya tick typhus lone star tick Lone Star tick longhorned tick northeastern water tick paralysis tick pasture tick seed tick sheep tick

Noun UK, colloquial

  1. Credit, trust.
    • When he had no funds he went on tick. When he could get no credit he went without, and was almost as happy. - 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 2, in The History of Pendennis. […],...
    • Immediately he got any money he would pay his debt; if there was any over he would spend it; if there was not—and there seldom was—he would begin to go on tick again. - 1903, Samuel Butler, chapter 42, in The Way of All...
    • He paid his mother-in-law rent and, when the baker or the butcher or the grocer wouldn't let her have any more on tick, he paid the bills. - 1974, GB Edwards, The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, New York 2007, page 190:

    Synonyms: credit trust

Origin

Clipping of ticket.

Noun obsolete

  1. A goat.
    • Tickhill, Tickham, Ticknock, Tickenhall Drive, Tickenhill Manor, Tickenhurst

Origin

From Middle English tik-, tic-, tike-, tiken- (in compounds), an unassibilated form of Middle English tiche, tichen (“young goat”), from Old English tiċċen (“young goat; kid”), from Proto-West Germanic *tikkīn (“goatling”), diminutive of Proto-West Germanic *tigā (“goat”). Cognate with regional German Zicke (“nanny goat”), from Ziege (“goat; nanny goat”).

Forms

ticks

Verb Entry 6

  1. To make a clicking noise similar to the movement of the hands of an analog clock.
    • As 2020 ticked over into 2021, some 240 worksites were active on HS2's Phase 1 route between London and the West Midlands. - 2021 January 13, Richard Clinnick, “HS2 reaches key milestones and gears up for a busy 2021”,...
  2. To make a tick or checkmark.
  3. To work or operate, especially mechanically.
    • He took the computer apart to see how it ticked.
    • I wonder what makes her tick.
  4. To strike gently; to pat.
    • Therefore you Preachers out vvith your ſvvords and ſtrike at the root; ſpeak againſt covetouſneſs, and cry out upon it. Stand not ticking and toying at the branches, nor at the boughs, for then there vvill be nevv...
  5. To add (a bird) to a list of birds that have been seen (or heard).

Origin

From Middle English ticken, tiken, probably from Old English *ticcian (“to touch, tap”), from Proto-West Germanic *tikkōn (“to touch, tap”), cognate with German zecken (“to nudge, poke, jab”). Doublet of tig.

Forms

ticks ticking ticked

Derived

box-ticking clock is ticking make tick take a licking and keep on ticking tickable tick all the boxes tick a lock tick a lot of boxes tick and flick tick and tie tick and toy tick away tick by tick down ticking clock ticking-off ticking-over ticking timebomb tick off tick on tick over tick past time is ticking top-tick

Verb Entry 7

  1. To go on trust, or credit.
  2. To give tick; to trust.

Forms

ticks ticking ticked