tic
[tik]
- Pathology.
- a sudden, spasmodic, painless, involuntary muscular contraction, as of the face.
- tic douloureux.
- a persistent or recurrent behavioral trait; personal quirk: her distinctive verbal tics.
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Origin of tic
1790–1800; < French (of expressive orig.)
-tic
- a suffix, equivalent in meaning to -ic, occurring in adjectives of Greek origin (analytic), used especially in the formation of adjectives from nouns with stems in -sis: hematotic; neurotic.
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Origin of -tic
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for tic
Contemporary Examples
He was asked if he worried that a tic might someday cause him to drop a ball.
In 2013, Der Spiegel pressed him on his condition: Der Spiegel: Has a ball ever slipped out of your hands because of a tic?
Elsewhere on this website, Andrew Sullivan has brilliantly designated these convolutions as a “tic of his generation.”
I nervously said something about her shirt being off, and she laughed, and we switched the game to Tic Tac Toe.
Historical Examples
Then tic two or three times over, and there was no more sound.
The WeathercockGeorge Manville Fenn
If I could take that tic with me, I should ask nothing more from Heaven.
My Novel, CompleteEdward Bulwer-Lytton
I have spoken of Peruvian bark as a remedy in tic douloureux.
Of the three kinds of neuralgia, the most common by far is tic, or faceache.
Cooley's Practical Receipts, Volume IIArnold Cooley
For an instance, a simple blinking of the eyelids may form a tic.
Tics and Their TreatmentHenry Meigne
tic
- spasmodic twitching of a particular group of muscles
- See tic douloureux
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Word Origin
C19: from French, of uncertain origin; compare Italian ticche
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for tic
n.
twitching of a facial muscle, 1822, often a shortening of tic douloureux "severe facial neuralgia," literally "painful twitch" (1800), from French tic "a twitching disease of horses" (early 17c.), of unknown origin. Klein suggests an imitative origin; French etymologists compare it to Italian ticchio "whim, caprice."
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
tic
(tĭk)- A habitual spasmodic muscular movement or contraction, usually of the face or extremities.habit spasm
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.