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)

• ticks,
  present (3rd person singular)
• ticked,
  past participle,  past
• ticking
  present participle

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)

• ticks,
  present (3rd person singular)
• ticked,
  past participle,  past
• ticking
  present participle

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. 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 ⁴ British  

/ tɪk /

noun

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

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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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Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

• ticking
  present
• ticked
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• tick
  simple
• ticks
  simple
• have ticked
  perfect
• has ticked
  perfect
• am ticking
  progressive
• are ticking
  progressive
• is ticking
  progressive
• have been ticking
  perfect progressive
• has been ticking
  perfect progressive

Past

• ticked
  simple
• had ticked
  perfect
• was ticking
  progressive
• were ticking
  progressive
• had been ticking
  perfect progressive

Future

• will tick
  simple
• will have ticked
  perfect
• will be ticking
  progressive
• will have been ticking
  perfect progressive

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”; see 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

See Examples For:

tick ticks ticked ticking

Google and ChatGPT—and, later, a vet—identified it as a lone star tick.

From Slate ● Aug. 6, 2026

Wall Street analysts later explained that the real motivation was likely to protect the Treasury market, just as volatility was starting to tick higher.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 6, 2026

A woman has been left with memory loss and seizures and has to take 18 tablets a day after a tick bite on a Greek holiday left her in a coma for nearly six weeks.

From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2026

So, how does it feel for O'Connor to tick off one of her big goals of 2026?

From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026

It was as if a clock had begun to tick again.

From "The Fighting Ground" by Avi

But individual ticks are capable of carrying more than one disease simultaneously, and as their territories proliferate, healthcare professionals are warning Americans to pay attention to strange symptoms.

From Slate ● Aug. 6, 2026

Spiders belong to a large group of invertebrates called chelicerates, which also includes scorpions and ticks.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 4, 2026

Germany’s DAX ticks into the green—up 0.1%—as utilities and autos rise, even as Adidas extends losses to fall close to 18%.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026

One is that more people are coming into contact with ticks there.

From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026

Because these were pieces, I carefully recorded each entry using an ink I'd made from the crushed bodies of ticks and mosquitoes.

From "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris

The unemployment rate ticked lower to 4.1% as more Americans stepped back from the labor market entirely.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

The unemployment rate ticked down to 4.1 percent, likely a result of falling labor supply as the US economy grapples with an aging population and lower net migration.

From Barron's ● Aug. 7, 2026

Weeks ticked by, and eventually Grayson missed the polio and diptheria jabs he was supposed to get at eight weeks old.

From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2026

However, funds flowing into the real assets segment ticked up 10% to $4.4 billion from $4 billion in the first quarter.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026

The clock on the wall ticked loudly in the silence.

From "An Elephant in the Garden" by Michael Morpurgo

"With climate change, we're sitting on a ticking time bomb," the 32-year-old founder of Bee Safe Mosquito Control tells AFP.

From Barron's ● Aug. 7, 2026

Early this year, Paramount agreed to pay Warner investors a so-called ticking fee of $.25 per share per quarter, beginning Oct.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026

“Young senator, writes some bestselling books,” he said, ticking off a number of shared qualities.

From Salon ● Jul. 29, 2026

Some are rolling out customer-facing GenAI chatbots, but it’s more for the purpose of ticking a box than driving real value.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026

“I don’t want to have this conversation,” Mr. Barris says once the ticking becomes insufferable.

From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern