ticktack

American  

[tik-tak] / ˈtɪkˌtæk /

Or tick-tack

noun

1. a repetitive sound, as of ticking, tapping, knocking, or clicking.

   the ticktack of high heels in the corridor.

2. a device for making a tapping sound, as against a window or door in playing a practical joke.

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verb (used without object)

1. to make a repeated ticking or tapping sound.

   Sleet ticktacked against the window panes.

ticktack British  

/ ˈtɪkˌtæk /

noun

1. a system of sign language, mainly using the hands, by which bookmakers transmit their odds to each other at racecourses

2. a ticking sound, as made by a clock

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Etymology

Origin of ticktack

1540–50; imitative See tick ¹

Example Sentences

A hundred metronomes went ticktack, ticktack during the 15-minute performance of Gy�rgi Ligeti's composition, Po�me Symphonique.

From Time Magazine Archive

Utter silence descended upon the court room—silence broken only by the slow ticktack of the self-winding clock on the rear wall and the whine of the electric cars on Park Row.

From Tutt and Mr. Tutt by Train, Arthur Cheney

To small virtues would they fain lure and laud me; to the ticktack of small happiness would they fain persuade my foot.

From Thus Spake Zarathustra A book for all and none by Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm

Verily, to such measure and ticktack, it liketh neither to dance nor to stand still.

From Thus Spake Zarathustra A book for all and none by Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm

To these may be added a dozen or more which seem to be of doubtful formation, such as huckaback, pickapack, gimcrack, ticktack, picknick, barrack, knapsack, hollyhock, shamrock, hammock, hillock, hammock, bullock, roebuck.

From The Grammar of English Grammars by Brown, Goold