ticking

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɪkɪŋ/
• Rhymes: -ɪkɪŋ

Etymology 1

tick (“sheet, cover”) +‎ -ing (“material, collection”).

Noun

ticking (plural tickings)

1. A strong cotton or linen fabric used to cover pillows and mattresses.
   • 1897, Rudyard Kipling, “chapter 1”, in Captains Courageous:

     Harvey saw with disgust that there were no sheets on his bed-place. He was lying on a piece of dingy ticking full of lumps and nubbles.

Translations

a strong cotton or linen fabric

• Aramaic: אַבּוּרְגְּנָא m
• Greek: στρωματσόπανο (el) n (stromatsópano)
• Irish: éadach tochta m
• Italian: traliccio (it) m, vergatino m
• Russian: тик (ru) m (tik)
• Spanish: terliz (es) m

Etymology 2

Noun

ticking (plural tickings)

1. A sound of something ticking.
   • 1842, Laman Blanchard, “The Frolics of Time”, in George Cruikshank's Omnibus:

     Were they indeed the tickings of a hundred clocks — the fine low inward breathings of Time's children!

   • 2018 May, Angela Leighton, Hearing Things: The Work of Sound in Literature, Harvard University Press, page 237:

     The combination of “monotony” and “variety,” which keeps the writer in a trance-like state between sleep and wake, is then characterized by the figure of a ticking watch: “If certain sensitive persons listen persistently to the ticking of a watch [...] they fall into the hypnotic trance; and rhythm is but the ticking of a watch made softer, that one must needs listen, and various, that one may not be swept beyond memory or grow weary of listening” (1961: 159).

2. An illusional style of dance where one moves his or her body to the "tic" of the music creating a strobe or animated effect.

Verb

ticking

1. present participle and gerund of tick

   a ticking time bomb

   • 2018 May, Angela Leighton, Hearing Things: The Work of Sound in Literature, Harvard University Press, page 237:

     The combination of “monotony” and “variety,” which keeps the writer in a trance-like state between sleep and wake, is then characterized by the figure of a ticking watch: “If certain sensitive persons listen persistently to the ticking of a watch [...] they fall into the hypnotic trance; and rhythm is but the ticking of a watch made softer, that one must needs listen, and various, that one may not be swept beyond memory or grow weary of listening” (1961: 159).

Derived terms

• the clock is ticking

Etymology 3

tick (“tick mark”) +‎ -ing (“having the property”).

Noun

ticking (plural tickings)

1. A marking that occurs on some horses. It involves white flecks of hair at the flank, and white hairs at the base of the tail, called a skunk tail or rabicano. Sometimes referred to as birdcatcher ticks.

See also

• Ticking in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)