tick

¹ American  

[tik] / tɪk /

noun

1. a slight, sharp, recurring click, tap, or beat, as of a clock.

2. Chiefly British Informal. a moment or instant.

3. a small dot, mark, check, or electronic signal, as used to mark off an item on a list, serve as a reminder, or call attention to something.

4. Stock Exchange.

   1. a movement in the price of a stock, bond, or option.

   2. the smallest possible tick on a given exchange.

5. Manège. a jumping fault consisting of a light touch of a fence with one or more feet.

6. a small contrasting spot of color on the coat of a mammal or the feathers of a bird.

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verb (used without object)

1. to emit or produce a tick, like that of a clock.

2. to pass as with ticks of a clock.

   The hours ticked by.

verb (used with object)

1. to sound or announce by a tick or ticks.

   The clock ticked the minutes.

2. to mark with a tick or ticks; check (usually followed byoff ); to tick off the items on the memo.

verb phrase

1. tick off

   1. to make angry.

      His mistreatment of the animals really ticked me off.

   2. Chiefly British. to scold severely.

      The manager will tick you off if you make another mistake.

idioms

1. what makes one tick, the motive or explanation of one's behavior.

   The biographer failed to show what made Herbert Hoover tick.

tick ² American  

[tik] / tɪk /

noun

1. any of numerous bloodsucking arachnids of the order Acarina, including the families Ixodidae and Argasidae, somewhat larger than the related mites and having a barbed proboscis for attachment to the skin of warm-blooded vertebrates: some ticks, as the deer tick, are vectors of disease.

2. sheeptick.

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tick ³ American  

[tik] / tɪk /

noun

1. the cloth case of a mattress, pillow, etc., containing hair, feathers, or the like.

2. ticking.

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tick ⁴ American  

[tik] / tɪk /

noun

1. a score or account.

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idioms

1. on tick, on credit or trust.

   We bought our telly on tick.

tick ¹ British  

/ tɪk /

noun

1. a recurrent metallic tapping or clicking sound, such as that made by a clock or watch

2. informal a moment or instant

3. a mark ( ) or dash used to check off or indicate the correctness of something

4. commerce the smallest increment of a price fluctuation in a commodity exchange. Tick size is usually 0.01% of the nominal value of the trading unit

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verb

1. to produce a recurrent tapping sound or indicate by such a sound

   the clock ticked the minutes away

2. to mark or check (something, such as a list) with a tick

3. informal the basic drive or motivation of a person

tick ² British  

/ tɪk /

noun

1. the strong covering of a pillow, mattress, etc

2. informal short for ticking

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tick ³ British  

/ tɪk /

noun

1. informal account or credit (esp in the phrase on tick )

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tick ⁴ British  

/ tɪk /

noun

1. any of various small parasitic arachnids of the families Ixodidae ( hard ticks ) and Argasidae ( soft ticks ), typically living on the skin of warm-blooded animals and feeding on the blood and tissues of their hosts: order Acarina (mites and ticks) See also sheep tick

2. any of certain other arachnids of the order Acarina

3. any of certain insects of the dipterous family Hippoboscidae that are ectoparasitic on horses, cattle, sheep, etc, esp the sheep ked

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tick Scientific  

/ tĭk /

1. Any of numerous small, parasitic arachnids of the suborder Ixodida that feed on the blood of animals. Like their close relatives the mites and unlike spiders, ticks have no division between cephalothorax and abdomen. Ticks differ from mites by being generally larger and having a sensory pit at the end of their first pair of legs. Many ticks transmit febrile diseases, such as Rocky Mountain spotted fever and Lyme disease.

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tick More Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing tick

• clock is ticking
• tight as a tick
• what makes one tick

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Etymology

Origin of tick¹

First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English tek “little touch”; akin to Dutch tik “a touch, pat,” Norwegian tikka “to touch or shove slightly”; tickle

Origin of tick²

First recorded before 900; Middle English teke, tyke, Old English ticia, perhaps spelling error for tiica (i.e. tīca ) or ticca; akin to Low German tieke, German Zecke

Origin of tick³

First recorded in 1425–75; late Middle English tikke, teke, tyke (cognate with Dutch tijk, German Zieche ), ultimately derived from Latin tēca, thēca, from Greek thḗkē “case”

Origin of tick⁴

First recorded in 1635–45; short for ticket

Explanation

To tick is to make a steady tapping sound. When something ticks — be it a clock, a watch, an oven timer, or a metronome — it’s usually a reminder that time is passing. The verb tick originally meant "to touch or pat." The current meaning may be related to the sound of a hand patting or tapping a surface. Another kind of tick is a small blood-sucking parasite. This nastier tick has a different root, the Old English ticia.

Example Sentences

The modest rise in employment was marginally below the about 15,000 that economists had expected, though the employment rate had been expected to tick up 0.1 percentage point.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 10, 2026

Vehicle sales this year are expected to tick up to 1.72 million, according to FactSet.

From Barron's • Apr. 9, 2026

The jobless rate also fell a tick, to 4.3%.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 3, 2026

It means that chatbots will try to collect information from sources that tick the correct boxes.

From Slate • Mar. 28, 2026

After a minute and twenty-two seconds—I watched the time tick by on the clock on the wall—my mom said, “Well, what if you don’t find anything?”

From "The Book of Unknown Americans" by Cristina Henríquez