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tick
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
tick
I.noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a clock ticks (=makes regular quiet sounds that shows it is working)
▪ There was no sound in the room apart from a clock ticking.
an engine idles/ticks over (=runs slowly while the vehicle, machine etc is not moving)
▪ The taxi waited at the kerb, its engine idling noisily.
biological clock ticking
▪ career women who hear the biological clock ticking
ticked off
▪ Mark’s ticked off with me for some reason.
ticking off
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
box
▪ Then do the same for the team you wish to select - the tick box will then appear.
▪ For information about the degree programme, tick box BA91 on the coupon.
▪ If you prefer the idea of studying a single course as an associate student, tick box OO91.
▪ For more information tick box SOB90 on the coupon.
■ VERB
make
▪ What makes us strange creatures tick, Liz, do you know?
▪ Jody has thought a lot about what makes Red tick.
▪ You had to understand and project what made your character tick.
▪ The car made cooling, metallic ticks sitting there, giving off heat as I passed it.
▪ We never get a sense of why anyone is doing what he is doing or what truly makes anyone tick.
put
▪ Every time he had a tantrum she put a tick in the appropriate square.
▪ Sometimes Paul puts a tick next to Keith's name, and then Keith remembers a meeting or changes his mind or something.
▪ Paul puts a tick next to Keith's name.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Jeremy waited anxiously, listening to the ticking of the clock on the wall.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Did you find any more ticks on him you know this is tick season, Mom.
▪ Do the pages of ticks mean that Fred is a genius or that the work was set at too low a standard?
▪ Most of the questions may be answered with a tick.
▪ No sound except the tick from the watch on Suzy's wrist.
▪ The tick of the Edwardian wall-clock bounced from wall to wall.
▪ The car made cooling, metallic ticks sitting there, giving off heat as I passed it.
II.verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
away
▪ It was half-past two, and the minutes were ticking away till Bobby Anscombe's appearance.
▪ The city Department of Public Works said it should be ticking away on time in several weeks.
▪ Henry sat in his chair as the seconds ticked away.
▪ Is there an institutional time-bomb ticking away?
▪ The clock ticked away on the mantelpiece.
▪ As the seconds before impact ticked away, Poole and Bowman waited with mounting tension.
▪ Above their heads the clock ticked away the last thirty minutes of the old year.
▪ On top of this, the environmental time bomb that has been ticking away for years now seems ready to explode.
by
▪ And he seemed to be concentrating on his driving as a minute or two ticked by in silence.
▪ Soon the mornings would be cauldrons of mists, slowly rising and clearing as the mornings ticked by.
▪ At nearby Camberwick Green, life ticked by on the same orderly lines.
▪ I thought of the seconds ticking by, minutes wasted before I had to go back to the dang.
▪ Two seconds of silence ticked by.
▪ Time was ticking by, and she was heading deeper into the unknown depths of Plenty.
▪ Even in the capital, life ticks by with the rhythm of the rice-growing cycle.
over
▪ You can stay a long time in neutral, ticking over - provided nothing happens.
▪ These are worries that should be ticking over more or less constantly.
▪ The administration keeps everything ticking over.
▪ Michele had phoned ahead, and his sleek silver Mercedes was waiting for him, the engine ticking over.
▪ When the council's officers work as a team the whole work of the staff will tick over smoothly.
▪ The engine of the big mechanical monster was ticking over with the deep throb of impatient, reined-in horsepower.
▪ The church should resist the temptation to merely tick over.
▪ The Republicans and Democrats tick over with a skeleton staff and then hire specialist consultants for each campaign.
■ NOUN
clock
▪ The clock ticked up shillings inexorably.
▪ But the clock was ticking loudly.
▪ On the shelf above the hearth a clock ticked slowly.
▪ Even as the trajectory of his thought kept rising in the early seventies, the clock was ticking on his pet project.
▪ It's the men now, as often as not, who hear the biological clock ticking loudest.
▪ As the clock ticked down, Busuttil and his team went to work.
▪ The way Max's biological clock is ticking, it's a wonder Emma didn't call out the bomb squad.
▪ But as Strug was trying to deal with the pain, the clock was ticking and she had to make a choice.
minutes
▪ Pressing his ear to the edge of the door, he listened intently, while a full three minutes ticked past.
▪ It was half-past two, and the minutes were ticking away till Bobby Anscombe's appearance.
▪ The minutes ticked by, and the house seemed to settle for sleep.
▪ As the minutes ticked away towards noon, the bustle subsided and a quietness settled across the gathering.
▪ Rachel holds me as the minutes tick away in the darkness.
▪ With the final minutes of the term ticking away Mr Yarrow had called Murphy Senior and frantic talks had taken place.
seconds
▪ Henry sat in his chair as the seconds ticked away.
▪ As the seconds before impact ticked away, Poole and Bowman waited with mounting tension.
▪ Two seconds of silence ticked by.
▪ I thought of the seconds ticking by, minutes wasted before I had to go back to the dang.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
give sb a ticking off
the clock is ticking
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ As usual, there was a bomb ticking somewhere and James Bond had to find it.
▪ I find it impossible to sleep if there's a clock ticking in the room.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A strong interest in people and what makes them tick.
▪ But the clock was ticking loudly.
▪ Even as the trajectory of his thought kept rising in the early seventies, the clock was ticking on his pet project.
▪ He ticked off those he had just interviewed and wondered which of the rest ought to take up his time and attention.
▪ His mind noted this fact among others, ticking efficiently on like a water-clock.
▪ Try to figure out what makes him tick.
▪ Usually when you wonder what makes people tick you speculate about such things as their motives, attitudes and feelings.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Tick

Tick \Tick\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Ticked; p. pr. & vb. n. Ticking.] [Probably of imitative origin; cf. D. tikken, LG. ticken.]

  1. To make a small or repeating noise by beating or otherwise, as a watch does; to beat.

  2. To strike gently; to pat.

    Stand not ticking and toying at the branches.
    --Latimer.

Tick

Tick \Tick\, n. [Abbrev. from ticket.] Credit; trust; as, to buy on, or upon, tick.

Tick

Tick \Tick\, v. i.

  1. To go on trust, or credit.

  2. To give tick; to trust.

Tick

Tick \Tick\, n. [OE. tike, teke; akin to D. teek, G. zecke. Cf. Tike a tick.] (Zo["o]l.)

  1. Any one of numerous species of large parasitic mites which attach themselves to, and suck the blood of, cattle, dogs, and many other animals. When filled with blood they become ovate, much swollen, and usually livid red in color. Some of the species often attach themselves to the human body. The young are active and have at first but six legs.

  2. Any one of several species of dipterous insects having a flattened and usually wingless body, as the bird ticks (see under Bird) and sheep tick (see under Sheep).

    Tick bean, a small bean used for feeding horses and other animals.

    Tick trefoil (Bot.), a name given to many plants of the leguminous genus Desmodium, which have trifoliate leaves, and joined pods roughened with minute hooked hairs by which the joints adhere to clothing and to the fleece of sheep.

Tick

Tick \Tick\, n.

  1. A quick, audible beat, as of a clock.

  2. Any small mark intended to direct attention to something, or to serve as a check.
    --Dickens.

  3. (Zo["o]l.) The whinchat; -- so called from its note.

    Death tick. (Zo["o]l.) See Deathwatch.

Tick

Tick \Tick\, v. t. To check off by means of a tick or any small mark; to score.

When I had got all my responsibilities down upon my list, I compared each with the bill and ticked it off.
--Dickens.

Tick

Tick \Tick\, n. [LL. techa, teca, L. theca case, Gr. ?, fr. ? to put. See Thesis.]

  1. The cover, or case, of a bed, mattress, etc., which contains the straw, feathers, hair, or other filling.

  2. Ticking. See Ticking, n.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
tick

parasitic blood-sucking arachnid animal, Old English ticia, from West Germanic *tik- (cognates: Middle Dutch teke, Dutch teek, Old High German zecho, German Zecke "tick"), of unknown origin, perhaps from PIE *deigh- "insect." French tique (mid-15c.), Italian zecca are Germanic loan-words.

tick

mid-15c., "light touch or tap," probably from tick (v.) and cognate with Dutch tik, Middle High German zic, and perhaps echoic. Meaning "sound made by a clock" is probably first recorded 1540s; tick-tock as the sound of a clock is recorded from 1845.

tick

"credit," 1640s, shortening of ticket (n.).

tick

early 13c., "to touch or pat," perhaps from an Old English verb corresponding to tick (n.2), and perhaps ultimately echoic. Compare Old High German zeckon "to pluck," Dutch tikken "to pat," Norwegian tikke "touch lightly." Meaning "make a ticking sound" is from 1721. Related: Ticked; ticking.\n

\nTo tick (someone) off is from 1915, originally "to reprimand, scold." The verbal phrase tick off was in use in several senses at the time: as what a telegraph instrument does when it types out a message (1873), as what a clock does in marking the passage of time (1777), to enumerate on one's fingers (1899), and in accountancy, etc., "make a mark beside an item on a sheet with a pencil, etc.," often indicating a sale (by 1881, from tick (n.2) in sense "small mark or dot"). This last might be the direct source of the phrase, perhaps via World War I military bureaucratic sense of being marked off from a list as "dismissed" or "ineligible." Meaning "to annoy" is recorded by 1971.

Wiktionary
tick

Etymology 1 n. A tiny woodland arachnid of the suborder Ixodid

  1. Etymology 2

    n. 1 A relatively quiet but sharp sound generally made repeatedly by moving machinery. 2 A mark on any scale of measurement; a unit of measurement. 3 (context computing English) A jiffy (unit of time defined by basic timer frequency). 4 (context colloquial English) A short period of time, particularly a second. 5 (context Australian NZ British Irish English) a mark (✓) made to indicate agreement, correctness or acknowledgement; checkmark 6 (context birdwatching slang English) A lifer (bird seen by a birdwatcher for the first time) that is uninteresting and routine, thus merely a tick mark on a list. 7 The whinchat; so called from its note. v

  2. 1 To make a clicking noise similar to the movement of the hands in an analog clock. 2 To make a tick mark. 3 (context informal English) To work or operate, especially mechanically. 4 To strike gently; to pat. Etymology 3

    n. 1 (context uncountable English) ticking. 2 A sheet that wraps around a mattress; the cover of a mattress, containing the filling. Etymology 4

    n. (context UK colloquial English) credit, trust. vb. 1 To go on trust, or credit. 2 To give tick; to trust.

WordNet
tick
  1. n. a metallic tapping sound; "he counted the ticks of the clock" [syn: ticking]

  2. any of two families of small parasitic arachnids with barbed proboscis; feed on blood of warm-blooded animals

  3. a mark indicating that something has been noted or completed etc.; "as he called the role he put a check mark by each student's name" [syn: check mark, check]

  4. a light mattress

tick
  1. v. make a clicking or ticking sound; "The clock ticked away" [syn: click]

  2. make a sound like a clock or a timer; "the clocks were ticking"; "the grandfather clock beat midnight" [syn: ticktock, ticktack, beat]

  3. sew; "tick a mattress" [syn: retick]

  4. put a check mark on or next to; "Please check each name on the list"; "tick off the items" [syn: check, check off, mark, mark off, tick off]

Wikipedia
Tick

Ticks are small arachnids in the order Parasitiformes. Along with mites, they constitute the subclass Acari. Ticks are ectoparasites (external parasites), living by hematophagy on the blood of mammals, birds, and sometimes reptiles and amphibians. Ticks are vectors of a number of diseases that affect both humans and other animals.

Despite their poor reputation among human communities, ticks may play an ecological role by culling infirm animals and preventing overgrazing of plant resources.

Tick (disambiguation)

Tick refers to small arachnids in the order Ixodida.

Tick or ticking may also refer to:

  • Tick (check mark), a mark (✓, ✔, ☑, etc.) used to indicate "yes"
  • Ticking, cotton or linen textile tightly woven for durability
Tick (comics)

The Tick is a fictional character created by cartoonist Ben Edlund in 1986 as a newsletter mascot for the New England Comics chain of Boston area comic stores. He is an absurdist spoof of comic book superheroes. After its creation, the character spun off into an independent comic book series in 1988, and gained mainstream popularity through an animated TV series on Fox in 1994. A short-lived live-action TV series, video game, and various merchandise have also been based on the character. IGN's list of the Top 100 Comic Book Heroes of All Time ranked The Tick as #57.

Tick (software)

Tick is time tracking software operated by The Molehill, headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, that offers online time tracking and reporting services through their website along with mobile and desktop applications. Tick tracks time based on clients, projects and tasks, either through a timer or through manual entry.

Usage examples of "tick".

In 1922 the United States had prohibited the import of foreign bees because they were bringing with them a tiny eight-legged tick called the Acarine mite.

In despair, she saw the clock tick down to zero, watching as Rennell resisted acknowledging his incapacity.

I paid them no attention, being intent upon the Armiger game, jump by jump, trying to keep the whole board in my head and remember which squares had been ticked off.

Trading precious altitude for more speed, Batman plunged toward the jungle canopy, watching as the rapidly sweeping hands of his altimeter ticked off the feet.

The time ticked over, but the Saint was too old a hand to be rattled by any such primitive device, and he leaned nonchalantly against the wall and waited patiently for Bittle to realize that the cat-and-mouse gag was getting no laughs that journey.

Counters in the boojum ticked off precise calibrations of radioactive decay, but the machine felt no suspense at all.

The whaleboat was fifty yards away, but the motor was ticking over steadily and Chubby spun her on her own tail.

After withstanding considerable pressure from Chubby and me, Angelo had at last succumbed to veiled threats and open bribes, and relinquished his ticking mattress stuffed with coconut-fibre.

Sanders pinched her donut between her thumb and forefinger, and ticked off the points she wanted to make on her remaining fingers.

No sound was to be heard in the little cottage except the ticking of the wheezy clock, as Dyce kept her solitary vigil by the side of the man she loved.

Mum, learning at her knee about whelping and worming, infections, dysplasia, mites and ticks.

The world around us is replete with means of exerting influence: balls can be hit with bats, bungee enthusiasts can throw themselves earthward from high platforms, magnets can keep superfast trains suspended just above metallic tracks, Geiger counters can tick in response to radioactive material, nuclear bombs can explode.

Their greatest pleasure was to sit along a girder and open their amplified senses to the depths of space, watching stars past the limits of ultraviolet and infrared, or staring into the flocculate crawling plaque of the surface of the sun, or just sitting and soaking in watts of solar energy through their skins while they listened with wired ears to the warbling of Van Allen belts and the musical tick of pulsars.

In the eagerness of their expectation the clock ticked louder than ever, the cricket chirped with more jubilant activity, the wind whistled shriller, the ghylls rumbled longer, but no welcomer sound broke the stillness.

In a noiseless explosion he penetrates the broken house, stepping over the greased crystals, a clock ticks loud in the kitchen, hot air ruffles his hair, his head disintegrates in a heavy duck load.