TICK • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Tick

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/tɪk/ Listen

verb

Tick v. t. To check off by means of a tick or any small mark; to score. "When I had got all my responsibilities down upon my list, I compared each with the bill and ticked it off."

Tick v. i.

To go on trust, or credit.

To give tick; to trust.

Tick v. i. (past & past part. ticked; pres. part. ticking)

To make a small or repeating noise by beating or otherwise, as a watch does; to beat.

To strike gently; to pat. "Stand not ticking and toying at the branches."

noun

Tick n. Credit; trust; as, to buy on, or upon, tick.

Tick n. (Zool.)

(a)

Any one of numerous species of large parasitic mites which attach themselves to, and suck the blood of, cattle, dogs, and many other animals. When filled with blood they become ovate, much swollen, and usually livid red in color. Some of the species often attach themselves to the human body. The young are active and have at first but six legs.

(b)

Any one of several species of dipterous insects having a flattened and usually wingless body, as the bird ticks (see under Bird) and sheep tick (see under Sheep).

Tick bean, a small bean used for feeding horses and other animals.

Tick trefoil (Bot.), a name given to many plants of the leguminous genus Desmodium, which have trifoliate leaves, and joined pods roughened with minute hooked hairs by which the joints adhere to clothing and to the fleece of sheep.

Tick n.

The cover, or case, of a bed, mattress, etc., which contains the straw, feathers, hair, or other filling.

Ticking. See Ticking, n.

Tick n.

A quick, audible beat, as of a clock.

Any small mark intended to direct attention to something, or to serve as a check.

(Zool.) The whinchat; so called from its note. (Prov. Eng.)

Death tick. (Zool.) See Deathwatch.

See images of 'Tick'

Etymology of 'Tick'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Tick" Quotes from Famous Books

... girl of Ad'line's has been too much for her all along," she announced, "she's wild as a hawk, and a perfect torment. One day she'll come strollin' in and beseechin' me for a bunch o' flowers, and the next she'll be here after dark scarin' me out o' my seven senses. She rigged a tick-tack here the other night against the window, and my heart was in my mouth. I thought 'twas a warnin' much as ever I thought anything in my life; the night before my mother died 'twas in that same room and against that same winder there came two or three raps, and my sister ...

— A Country Doctor and Selected Stories and Sketches • Sarah Orne Jewett

... air next day. The little Croesuses first cry, because they haven't received more, and then fight over what they have; then they eat too much French candy, and get sick and cross, and the whole house is filled with their noise. So mamma has a headache; and papa longs for his office, and misses the tick-tick of the stock telegraph, and thinks what a confounded nuisance holidays are. That is what Christmas is like ...

— Christmas - Its Origin, Celebration and Significance as Related in Prose and Verse • Various

... as ebony, where her skin was discoverable through its perfect incrustation of dirt—with a thick mat of frizzly wool upon her skull, which made the sole request she preferred to him irresistibly ludicrous:—'Massa, massa, you please to buy me a comb to tick in my head?' Mr. —— promised her this necessary of life, and I promised myself to give her the luxury of one whole garment. Mrs. —— has sent me the best possible consolation for the lost mutton, some lovely flowers, and these will ...

— Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation - 1838-1839 • Frances Anne Kemble

... money. Anything left over was held back to be paid when we got to Blighty. Parcels and mail came along with perfect regularity on that hike. It was and is a marvel to me how they do it. A battalion chasing around all over the place gets its stuff from Blighty day after day, right on the tick and without any question. I only hope that whatever the system is, our army will take advantage of it. A shortage of letters and luxury parcels is a ...

— A Yankee in the Trenches • R. Derby Holmes

... hands at four upon the pale gold dial. Then she drew up the worn gold chain that hung around her neck, under her gown, and, with the key that dangled from it, wound the watch. In an hour or so, probably, it would stop, but it was pleasant to hear the cheerful little tick while she waited. ...

— Master of the Vineyard • Myrtle Reed

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