Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
children's three-in-a-row game with Xs and Os, so called by 1892, earlier tit-tat-toe (by 1852, in reminiscences of earlier years), also called noughts and crosses (1852). Probably from the sound of the pencil on the slate with which it originally was played by schoolboys. Also the name of a children's counting rhyme played on slate (also originally tit-tat-toe, by 1842), and compare tick-tack (1580s), a form of backgammon, possibly from Middle French trictrac, perhaps imitative of the sound of tiles on the board.
Wiktionary
n. (alternative spelling of tic-tac-toe English)
WordNet
n. a game in which two players alternately put crosses and circles in one of the compartments of a 3-by-3 board; the object is to get a row of three crosses or three circles before the opponent does [syn: ticktacktoe, ticktacktoo, tic-tac-toe, tit-tat-toe, noughts and crosses]
Usage examples of "tick-tack-toe".
It was as though the Hooeywood experience had never happened—except that Nancy wore coveralls decorated with tick-tack-toe crosshatches.
Julia smiled slightly, drew her dagger from her boot, and cut tick-tack-toe lines into the carpet between them.
Someone had been playing tick-tack-toe on his shirt front, and his necktie was under one ear.
Carson hissed thoughtfully between his teeth as they laid out the poles in the form of a tick-tack-toe diagram and got busy locking them rigid.
Children love to play tick-tack-toe, for instance, but it’s such a limited game that, after a while, most children don’t want to play it any more.