tick

To tick is to make a steady tapping sound. When something ticks — be it a clock, a watch, an oven timer, or a metronome — it’s usually a reminder that time is passing.

The verb tick originally meant "to touch or pat." The current meaning may be related to the sound of a hand patting or tapping a surface. Another kind of tick is a small blood-sucking parasite. This nastier tick has a different root, the Old English ticia.

Definitions of tick
  1. noun
    a metallic tapping sound
    “he counted the ticks of the clock”
    synonyms: ticking
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    types:
    ticktock, tictac, tocktact
    steady recurrent ticking sound as made by a clock
    type of:
    sound
    the sudden occurrence of an audible event
  2. verb
    make a clicking or ticking sound
    “The clock ticked away”
    synonyms: click
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    type of:
    go, sound
    make a certain noise or sound
  3. verb
    make a sound like a clock or a timer
    “the clocks were ticking”
    synonyms: beat, ticktack, ticktock
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    type of:
    go, sound
    make a certain noise or sound
  4. noun
    a mark indicating that something has been noted or completed etc.
    synonyms: check, check mark
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    type of:
    mark
    a written or printed symbol (as for punctuation)
  5. verb
    put a check mark on or near or next to
    “tick off the items”
    synonyms: check, check off, mark, mark off, tick off
    check, check into, check out, check over, check up on, go over, look into, suss out
    examine so as to determine accuracy, quality, or condition
    ascertain, assure, check, control, ensure, insure, see, see to it
    be careful or certain to do something; make certain of something
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    types:
    receipt
    mark or stamp as paid
    type of:
    verify
    confirm the truth of
  6. noun
    a light mattress
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    type of:
    mattress
    a large thick pad filled with resilient material and often incorporating coiled springs, used as a bed or part of a bed
  7. verb
    sew
    “tick a mattress”
    synonyms: retick
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    type of:
    run up, sew, sew together, stitch
    fasten by sewing; do needlework
  8. noun
    any of two families of small parasitic arachnids with barbed proboscis; feed on blood of warm-blooded animals
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    types:
    show 11 types...
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    hard tick, ixodid
    ticks having a hard shield on the back and mouth parts that project from the head
    argasid, soft tick
    tick lacking a dorsal shield and having mouth parts on the under side of the head
    Ixodes dammini, deer tick
    a northeastern tick now recognized as same species as Ixodes scapularis
    Ixodes neotomae
    a tick that usually does not bite humans; transmits Lyme disease spirochete to dusky-footed wood rats
    Ixodes pacificus, western black-legged tick
    a tick that feeds on dusky-footed wood rat and bites humans; principal vector for Lyme disease in western United States especially northern California
    Ixodes scapularis, black-legged tick
    parasitic on mice of genus Peromyscus and bites humans; principal vector for Lyme disease in eastern United States (especially New England); northern form was for a time known as Ixodes dammini (deer tick)
    Ixodes ricinus, sheep tick, sheep-tick
    parasitic on sheep and cattle as well as humans; can transmit looping ill in sheep (acute viral disease of the nervous system); a vector for Lyme disease spirochete
    Ixodes persulcatus
    bites humans; a vector for Lyme disease spirochete
    Ixodes dentatus
    usually does not bite humans; transmits Lyme disease spirochete to cottontail rabbits and wood rats
    Ixodes spinipalpis
    usually does not bite humans; transmits Lyme disease spirochete to cottontail rabbits and wood rats
    American dog tick, Dermacentor variabilis, wood tick
    common tick that can transmit Rocky Mountain spotted fever and tularemia
    type of:
    acarine
    mite or tick
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