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

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 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

And there it was that Pere Merlier's mill enlivened with its ticktack a corner of wild verdure.

From Four Short Stories By Emile Zola by Zola, Émile

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