Crossword clues for ticking
ticking
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Tick \Tick\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Ticked; p. pr. & vb. n. Ticking.] [Probably of imitative origin; cf. D. tikken, LG. ticken.]
To make a small or repeating noise by beating or otherwise, as a watch does; to beat.
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To strike gently; to pat.
Stand not ticking and toying at the branches.
--Latimer.
Ticking \Tick"ing\, n. [From Tick a bed cover. Cf. Ticken.] A strong, closely woven linen or cotton fabric, of which ticks for beds are made. It is usually twilled, and woven in stripes of different colors, as white and blue; -- called also ticken.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"cloth covering (usually of strong cotton or linen) for mattresses or pillows," 1640s, from tyke (modern tick) with the same meaning (mid-14c.), probably from Middle Dutch tike, from a West Germanic borrowing of Latin theca "case," from Greek theke "a case, box, cover, sheath" (see theco-).
Wiktionary
Etymology 1 n. A strong cotton or linen fabric used to cover pillows and mattresses. Etymology 2
n. 1 A sound of something ticking. 2 An illusional style of dance where one moves his or her body to the "tic" of the music creating a strobe or animated effect. vb. (present participle of tick English) Etymology 3
n. A marking that occurs on some horses. It involves white flecks of hair at the flank, and white hairs at the base of the tail, called a skunk tail or rabicano. Sometimes referred to as birdcatcher ticks.
WordNet
n. a metallic tapping sound; "he counted the ticks of the clock" [syn: tick]
a strong fabric used for mattress and pillow covers
Wikipedia
Ticking is a cotton or linen textile that is tightly woven for durability and to prevent down feathers from poking through the fabric, and used to cover mattresses and bed pillows. It commonly has a striped design, in muted colors such as brown, grey or blue, and occasionally red or yellow, against a plain, neutral background.
Although traditionally used for mattresses and pillows, the material has found other uses, such as serving as a backing for quilts, coverlets, and other bedding. It is sometimes woven with a twill weave.
Ticking is no longer restricted to a utility fabric and has found uses in interior decorating styles intending to evoke a homespun or industrial aesthetic. Modern uses for ticking include furniture upholstery, cushion covers, tablecloths, decorative basket liners, and curtains. Occasionally, lighter weight percale cloth is printed with a striped pattern made to resemble ticking fabric, and used to make garments.
Usage examples of "ticking".
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.
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.
In a little while he was hard at work again, and the only sounds in the room were the ticking of the clock and the subdued shrillness of his quill, hurrying in the very centre of the circle of light his lampshade threw on his table.
Then he began to speak equally quickly and urgently to the lawer, one hand outstretched, the other ticking off points on his fingers, as though he were issuing instructions.
The loadmaster continued ticking off the procedures for this, her endless personal days in hell.
It was a silence that whispered with tiny intimate sounds: the gentle sigh of the breeze in the leaves above their heads, the stir of a bird in the undergrowth along the river, the far-off booming shout of a bull baboon that echoed faintly along the rocky cliffs at the head of the valley and the tiny ticking sounds of the termite legions gnawing away at the dry mopane poles on which they sat.
When Miranda sighed and nodded, Roxy sat up as tall as a person who barely tops five feet could, closed her eyes, and started ticking items off her fingers.
When they were done, they lay with her hair smothering his face, Smetana still playing, the clock ticking, the phoney fire guttering.
She was bored, too, with working in the Upright Small General Dealer, where every Saturday she did the stocktaking and spent hours ticking off items on dog-eared stock lists.
Meanwhile, the clock was ticking, the hours and days of the chronometer turning, the predicted estimated time of arrival of Shiva and its escort at Summerland getting ominously nearer.
In a moment he became businesslike, staring truculently at the clock ticking loudly like a reminder on his desk.
Petropavlovsk, was running perfectly, the reactor ticking along at low pressure, the turbines at cruising speed.
I love you more than all the flannelette and calico, candlewick, dimity, crash and merino, tussore, cretonne, crepon, muslin, poplin, ticking and twill in the whole Cloth Hall of the world.
They walked with their wands lit, held high, and at length, Harry finally started hearing the ticking, too.