tick

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See also: Tick

English[edit]

English Wikipedia has articles on:
Wikipedia Wikipedia

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

A tick (Ixodes hexagonus)

From Middle English tyke, teke, from Old English ticia (“parasitic animal, tick”), from Proto-Germanic *tīkkô, suffixed variant of Proto-Germanic *tīgô, compare Dutch teek, German Zecke.

Noun[edit]

tick (plural ticks)

  1. A tiny woodland arachnid of the suborder Ixodida.
    Hypernyms: ectoparasite, arachnid
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]

Further reading[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

From Middle English tek (“light touch, tap”).

Noun[edit]

tick (plural ticks)

  1. A relatively quiet but sharp sound generally made repeatedly by moving machinery.
    The steady tick of the clock provided a comforting background for the conversation.
  2. A mark on any scale of measurement; a unit of measurement.
    At midday, the long bond is up a tick.
  3. (computing) A jiffy (unit of time defined by basic timer frequency).
  4. (colloquial) A short period of time, particularly a second.
    Synonym: sec
    I'll be back in a tick.
  5. (video games) A periodic increment of damage or healing caused by an ongoing status effect.
  6. (Australia, New Zealand, Britain, Ireland) A mark (✓) made to indicate agreement, correctness or acknowledgement.
    Synonym: checkmark
    Indicate that you are willing to receive marketing material by putting a tick in the box
  7. (birdwatching) A bird seen (or heard) by a birdwatcher, for the first time that day, year, trip, etc., and thus added to a list of observed birds.
    • 1980, Bill Oddie, Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book, page 76:
      There are few birders who have not had stringy ticks on their lists at some stage.
    • 2005, Sean Dooley, The Big Twitch, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 41:
      A twitcher's list is very democratic. Each bird counts as one tick. There are no extra points for beauty or rarity. The humble sparrow counts just as much as a Wedge-tailed Eagle or a Paradise Parrot.
  9. (ornithology) The whinchat.
Derived terms[edit]
Terms derived from tick (noun)
Translations[edit]
unit of time defined by timer frequency — see jiffy
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Verb[edit]

tick (third-person singular simple present ticks, present participle ticking, simple past and past participle ticked)

[1] ticking of an egg timer
  1. To make a clicking noise similar to the movement of the hands in an analog clock.
    • 2021 January 13, Richard Clinnick, “HS2 reaches key milestones and gears up for a busy 2021”, in Rail, page 12:
      As 2020 ticked over into 2021, some 240 worksites were active on HS2's Phase 1 route between London and the West Midlands.
  2. To make a tick or checkmark.
  3. (informal, intransitive) To work or operate, especially mechanically.
    He took the computer apart to see how it ticked.
    I wonder what makes her tick.
  4. To strike gently; to pat.
    • 1550, Hugh Latimer, “Sermon XIV. Preached before King Edward the Sixth and His Most Honourable Council, in His Court at Westminster, in the Year 1550.”, in The Sermons of the Right Reverend Father in God, Master Hugh Latimer, Bishop of Worcester. […], volume I, London: […] J. Scott, […], published 1758, →OCLC, page 274:
      Therefore you Preachers out vvith your ſvvords and ſtrike at the root; ſpeak againſt covetouſneſs, and cry out upon it. Stand not ticking and toying at the branches, nor at the boughs, for then there vvill be nevv boughs and branches ſpring again of them, but ſtrike at the root, […]
  5. (birdwatching, transitive) To add (a bird) to a list of birds that have been seen (or heard).
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]

Etymology 3[edit]

From Middle English tike, probably from Middle Dutch, from Latin theca (“cover”).

Noun[edit]

tick (countable and uncountable, plural ticks)

  1. (uncountable) Ticking.
  2. A sheet that wraps around a mattress; the cover of a mattress, containing the filling.
Synonyms[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]

Etymology 4[edit]

Clipping of ticket.

Noun[edit]

tick (uncountable)

  1. (UK, colloquial) Credit, trust.
    Synonyms: credit, trust
    • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 2, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:
      When he had no funds he went on tick. When he could get no credit he went without, and was almost as happy.
    • 1903, Samuel Butler, chapter 42, in The Way of All Flesh:
      Immediately he got any money he would pay his debt; if there was any over he would spend it; if there was not—and there seldom was—he would begin to go on tick again.
    • 1974, GB Edwards, The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, New York 2007:
      He paid his mother-in-law rent and, when the baker or the butcher or the grocer wouldn't let her have any more on tick, he paid the bills.
Translations[edit]

Verb[edit]

tick (third-person singular simple present ticks, present participle ticking, simple past and past participle ticked)

  1. (intransitive) To go on trust, or credit.
  2. (transitive) To give tick; to trust.

Etymology 5[edit]

From Middle English tik-, tic-, tike-, tiken- (in compounds), an unassibilated form of Middle English tiche, tichen (“young goat”), from Old English tiċċen (“young goat; kid”), from Proto-West Germanic *tikkīn (“goatling”), diminutive of Proto-West Germanic *tigā (“goat”). Cognate with regional German Zicke (“nanny goat”), from Ziege (“goat; nanny goat”).

Noun[edit]

tick (plural ticks)

  1. (obsolete, place names) A goat.
    Tickhill, Tickham, Ticknock, Tickenhall Drive, Tickenhill Manor, Tickenhurst
Usage notes[edit]
  • Nowadays only found in place names. Fell out of common usage in the 13th century.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “tick”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

German[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

tick

  1. singular imperative of ticken

Swedish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun[edit]

tick n

  1. tick (quiet but sharp sound)

Declension[edit]

Declension of tick 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative tick ticket tick ticken
Genitive ticks tickets ticks tickens
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