clickety-clack

American  

[klik-i-tee-klak] / ˈklɪk ɪ tiˈklæk /

noun

1. a rhythmic, swiftly paced succession of alternating clicks and clacks, as the sound produced by the wheels of a train moving over tracks.

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Etymology

Origin of clickety-clack

First recorded in 1875–80; metrical compound from click ¹, clack

Example Sentences

And produce the satisfying clickety-clack of real writing.

From Washington Post • Nov. 5, 2015

Each photograph is juxtaposed with a pair of gridded drawings, which look at first as if they might have been issued on an old, clickety-clack dot-matrix printer or an IBM Selectric typewriter.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 3, 2015

Our narrator, a Frenchman, sits with his family in the pews of Notre Dame mourning his grandfather when the clickety-clack of high heels disturbs the still air.

From New York Times • Nov. 28, 2012

How long would it be before these kids retreated into the dense clickety-clack äppärät world of their absorbed mothers and missing fathers?

From The New Yorker • Jun. 7, 2010

But just to make sure, I moved my head over to the rail and put an ear against it, lazy-like, and—I could hear the clickety-clack!

From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns