| 释义 |
▪ I. tick, n.1|tɪk|
Forms: (1 ticia), 5 teke; 4–7 tyke, 6 tycke, 6–7 tike, ticke, 7 tique, 7– tick.
[Ticia (assumed to be an error for *tiica = tīca, or *ticca) appears once, in the Erfurt Gloss. a 800, after which the word is known only in 15th c. as teke, from 14th to 17th c. as tȳke, and from 16th c. as tycke, tick. Teke agrees with MD., MLG. tēke, Du. teek, also with the LG. forms teke, täke. Tȳke, tīke agree with suggested OE. *tīca, with LG. tieke, tiek, whence Du. tiek, and mod.EFris. tike, tîk, applied to beetles generally (Dornkaat-Koolman). Thence also prob. F. tique (1464 in Godef.). The later tycke, tick may be shortened from teke: cf. rick, sick, wick. If = OE. *ticca with OTeut. cc, it would correspond to Ger. zecke (whence It. zecca):—*tikkon m. or *tikkôn f.; if = *tĭca, to MHG. zeche. The various forms imply WGer. *tîka-, *tika-, *tikka-. Ulterior etymology uncertain: see Kluge and Franck; also Falk and Torp s.v. Tæge.]
1. a. The common name for several kinds of mites or acarids, esp. of the genus Ixōdes or family Ixōdidæ, which infest the hair or fur of various animals, as dogs, cattle, etc., and attach themselves to the skin as temporary parasites; also for the similarly parasitic dipterous insects of the families Hippoboscidæ (bird-ticks, horse-ticks, sheep-ticks) and Nycteribiidæ (bat-ticks).
a800Erfurt Gloss. (O.E.T.) 1130 Ricinus, ticia sax. 1300–25Song agst. Retainers 20 in Pol. Songs (Camden) 238 To shome he huem shadde, To fles ant to fleye, To tyke ant to tadde. c1440Jacob's Well xxi. 146 A waterleche or a tyke hath neuere ynow, tyl it brestyth. 14..Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 565/47 Ascarida, a Teke. 1523Fitzherb. Husb. §135 There is ieopardy both for calues, foles and coltes, for tyckes, or for beynge lousye. 1575Turberv. Venerie 229 A receipt to kill fleas, lice, tykes, and other vermin on dogs. 1603Holland Plutarch's Mor. 393 The foxe in æsops fables would not suffer the urchin to take off the tiques that were setled upon her bodie. 1658Rowland Moufet's Theat. Ins. 934 The Tick or Sheep-fly. 1688R. Holme Armoury ii. 198/2 The Tike is another kind of Louse,..a Companion for Dogs, Sheep, and Cattle. 1748Anson's Voy. iii. ii. 314 An insect called a tick, which, though principally attached to the cattle, would yet frequently fasten upon our limbs and bodies. 1839Darwin Voy. Nat. i. (1879) 10 A tick which must have come here as a parasite on the birds. 1882Garden 14 Jan. 20/1 The horses..were covered with large blue ticks.
b. Applied in contempt or insult to a person. Freq. as little tick. colloq.
1631A. Wilson Swisser ii. i, Yee nigling Ticks you. 1909Wodehouse Mike xl. 231 Can't you see that..we've got a chance of getting a jolly good bit of our own back against those Downing's ticks? 1928J. van Druten Young Woodley i. 17 Milner: ‘Cope, your presence is urgently desired... Scrimshanking, the little tic.’ 1952E. O'Neill Moon for Misbegotten i. 17 Everyone says you're a wicked old tick, as crooked as a corkscrew. 1973R. Fulford in D. Pryce-Jones Evelyn Waugh & his World ii. 17 How often in those early days did I hear those ominous words ‘that awful little tick Waugh’.
c. Phr. as full (or tight) as a tick: full to repletion, esp. with alcoholic drink.
1678J. Ray Coll. Eng. Proverbs (ed. 2) 284 As full as a pipers bag; as a tick. 1822Yankee Phrases in New Jersey Alm. 1823 (Elizabethtown, N.J.) 31 Though of love I'm as full as a tick. 1911L. Stone Jonah 226 'Ard luck, to grudge a man a pint, with 'is own missis inside there gittin' as full as a tick. 1933M. Lowry Ultramarine iv. 177 He was tight as a tick so couldn't tell the difference. 1952E. O'Neill Moon for Misbegotten iv. 168 ‘You must have seen how blotto I was.’.. ‘I did. You were as full as a tick.’ 1981A. Price Soldier no More v. 59 He was drunk as a lord..tight as a tick.
2. Short for tick-bean: see 3.
1765Treat. Dom. Pigeons 28 Horse-beans are the next food... There is a sort which they call French ticks, which are good food. 1850–2Morton Cycl. Agric. (1855) I. 200/2 There are several other varieties of the Tick bean in cultivation, known locally [as] Harrow Tick, Flat Tick, Essex Tick, and French Tick.
3. attrib. and Comb., as tick genus, tick plague; tick-infested adj.; tick-bean, a small-seeded variety of the common bean, Vicia Faba, so called from the resemblance of the seed to a dog-tick; tick-bird, a bird which feeds on the ticks that infest large quadrupeds, as the African genus Buphaga (rhinoceros-bird) and the S. American and W. Indian Crotophaga ani; tick-borne a., transmitted by ticks; tick-borne fever, a mild, transient, rickettsial, febrile disease of sheep, cattle, and goats; tick-eater = tick-bird; tick fever, a fever (in men or cattle) caused by the bites of ticks; tick-fly, any of the dipterous insects called ticks (see 1); tick paralysis, paralysis caused by neurotoxin in the saliva of certain biting ticks; tick pyæmia, a type of blood-poisoning in sheep, esp. lambs, caused by Staphylococcus aureus and leading to lameness or death; tick-seed, name for various plants having seeds resembling ticks, as † the castor-oil plant, Ricinus communis (obs.), and the genera Coreopsis and Corispermum; also = tick-trefoil; tick-seeded a., having seeds resembling ticks; tick-spider, name for a jumping spider; † tick spot, a marking as if bitten by a tick: cf. ticked a.; tick-trefoil, a plant of the genus Desmodium, so named from the joints of the pods adhering like ticks to the fur of animals; tick typhus = Rocky Mountain fever s.v. rocky a.1 1 c; tick-weed, † (a) the castor-oil plant (see tick-seed above); (b) the American pennyroyal, Hedeoma pulegioides.
1744W. Ellis Mod. Husbandman Feb. ii. 17 Chilturn Farmers can get a full Crop of Horse or *Tick-beans. 1763Museum Rust. (ed. 2) I. 187 The methods followed..in sowing horse beans, or tick-beans, as we sometimes call them. 1805Trans. Soc. Arts XXIII. 36 One stalk of the tick bean had 70 pods. 1969Oxf. Bk. Food Plants 40/1 Prehistoric specimens are all small-seeded forms—even smaller than the ‘Horse bean’ or ‘Tick bean’ varieties grown as food for livestock in modern times.
1850T. E. Poole Life, Scenery, & Customs in Sierra Leone & Gambia II. xiv. 220 Perched upon these animals [sc. cattle], which did not seem in the least to mind them, were a species of birds called ‘*Tick-birds’, from the circumstances of their feeding upon certain insects of that name, which they find in great numbers on these beasts. 1863W. C. Baldwin Afr. Hunting ix. 389, I was much amused by watching the tick birds trying to alarm an old white rhinoceros, that we were approaching from under the wind. 1871Kingsley At Last v, The black ‘tick birds’ (Crotophaga Ani), a little larger than our English blackbird. 1896Baden-Powell Matabele Campaign xviii. 133 Colenbrander..they have called the ‘tick-bird’—a bird which in this country always accompanies a bull, to relieve him of superfluous ticks.
1921Indian Med. Gaz. LVI. 368/1 It [sc. Brill's disease] has no epidemiological relationship whatever with the Rocky Mountain fever which is *tick-borne.
1932W. S. Gordon et al. in Jrnl. Compar. Path. & Therapeutics XLV. 122 A disease characterised by a low mortality, with an incubation period of about four days, followed by a sharp rise in temperature and a period of fever... We have..shown..that this reaction is a ‘*tick-borne fever’. Ibid. 301 This condition we have..named ‘tick-borne fever’. 1970W. H. Parker Health & Dis. in Farm Animals xviii. 241 In areas of late lambing, abortions in ewes are sometimes attributable to tick-borne fever. 1973J. J. McKelvey Man Against Tsetse i. 42 Dutton died at Kasongo in February 1905 of tick-borne relapsing fever.
1903Daily Chron. 11 June 3/3 The gulls,..like the small *tick eaters which live on African game, delighted in warning their friends of our approach.
1901Lancet 23 Nov. 1432/1 *Tick fever is widely distributed throughout the world... It is communicated to cattle by insects known as ‘ticks’.
1658Rowland Moufet's Theat. Ins. 949 Those things that kill and drive away the *Tyke-flies called Ricini, for the most part kill and drive away the Dog-flies. 1889Cent. Dict. s.v. Hippobosca, H. equina is a winged tick-fly of the horse.
1822–34Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) I. 263 Linnæus..laboured..to prove, that dysentery is the effect of a..larva..belonging to the acarus or *tick genus.
1932C. Fuller Louis Trigardt's Trek 128 Our small stock were so *tick-infested that we despaired of saving them. 1960Times 1 Oct. 7/7 Tick-infested hinterland.
1914P. Manson Trop. Dis. (ed. 5) xvii. 307 (heading) *Tick paralysis. 1962Gordon & Lavoipierre Entomol. for Students of Med. xliii. 260 In Australia, North America, South Africa and South Eastern Europe several species of ticks..produce a type of ascending motor paralysis known as ‘tick paralysis’.
1896Daily News 23 Nov. 8/5 The *tick-plague in Queensland..is not so terrible a scourge as the South African rinderpest.
1946Nature 27 July 132/2 The sheep tick, Ixodes ricinus, is involved in the transmission of..*tick-pyæmia. 1970W. H. Parker Health & Dis. in Farm Animals xviii. 241 Tick pyaemia is caused by the ubiquitous bacterium Staphylococcus.
1562Turner Herbal ii. 116 Ricinus is called..in English palma Christi, or *ticke sede... The sede..when the huske is of..looketh very lyke a dogge louse which is called a tyke. 1760J. Lee Introd. Bot. App. 329 Tickseed, Corispermum. 1860Worcester, Tickseed sunflower, a smooth-branched herb, having golden-yellow, showy rays; Coreopsis trichosperma. Gray.
1786Abercrombie Arrangem. in Gard. Assist. 54/2 Coreopsis, *tick-seeded sunflower.
1721Bradley Philos. Acc. Wks. Nat. 135 The Jumper or *Tick Spider.
1704Lond. Gaz. No. 4079/4 A..Greyhound..with some white *Tick Spots.
1853Thoreau Jrnl. 31 July in Writings (1906) XI. 350 Desmodium nudifloram, naked-flowered *tick trefoil, some already with loments round-angled. 1857Gray First Less. Bot. (1866) 127 A one-celled ovary sometimes becomes several-celled..by the formation of false partitions,..as in the jointed pod of the Sea-Rocket and the Tick-Trefoil.
1921Indian Med. Gaz. LVI. 370/2 (heading) Possible human origin of *tick typhus. 1981D. R. Bell Lect. Notes Trop. Med. vii. 68 American tick typhus caused by R[ickettsia] rickettsi occurs in Colombia and Brazil.
1563T. Hill Art Garden. (1593) 32 The hearbe named *Tick-weed, otherwise in Latin Palma Christi. 1884Miller Plant-n., Tick-weed, Hedeoma pulegioides.
▪ II. tick, n.2|tɪk|
Forms: α. 5 tikke, tykk(e, 6 tycke, 6–7 ticke, 6– tick; β. 5–6 teke, 7 teike; γ. (chiefly Sc.) 5– tyke, 6 tyik, 6– tike |taɪk|.
[Known from 15th c., in the forms tikke, tēke, tȳke; the second corresp. to MLG. and MDu. têke (mod.EFris. têk, Doornkaat-Koolman), cognate with OHG. ziahha, ziecha, MHG., Ger. zieche bed-tick, pillow-case; the third to MDu. tîke, tijcke, Du. tijk. These forms point to an earlier WGer. *tēka, and later *tīka, both a. L. tēca, thēca, a. Gr. θήκη case, whence also F. teie, taie, obs. Eng. tay, tey. The short vowel in tykke, tikke, ticke, tick, is prob. as in rick, sick, wick.]
a. The case or cover containing feathers, flocks, or the like, forming a mattress or pillow; also, from 16th c., applied to the strong hard linen or cotton material used for making such cases.
α1466Mann. & Househ. Exp. (Roxb.) 362 For iij. tykkes [pr. tylkes] and bolsteres to the same fore federbeddes. 1480Wardr. Acc. Edw. IV (1830) 118 To Lisbet Ketiller for a grete tikke xxxij s. 1530Palsgr. 281/1 Ticke for a fetherbed, coite de lit. 1569Wills & Inv. N.C. (Surtees) I. 311 One fether bed, the tycke therof I dyd by. 1586Rates of Custome E viij b, Ticks called Brussel ticks, the Tick xiij.s. iiij.d. 1636Althorp MS. in Simpkinson Washingtons (1860) App. p. lxxvii, For 2 feather bed ticks for Alexander. 1743Phil. Trans. XLII. 367 Those Ticks and Pillow-biers covering the Matresses and Pillows. 1812W. Tennant Anster F. ii. xxviii, Dunfermline, too, so fam'd checks and ticks. 1842S. Lover Handy Andy vi, The deep pocket of blue striped tick which hung at her side. 1853Heal & Son Catal.: Bedsteads 3 Best Grey Goose..in Fine Linen Ticks. 1908L. M. Montgomery Anne of Green Gables iv. 49 She made her bed less successfully, for she had never learned the art of wrestling with a feather tick. 1951People 3 June 6/8 (Advt.), Pillow ticks black white striped. 1980J. C. Oates Bellefleur (1981) iv. 329 A plain four-poster with white ruffled skirts, a cornhusk tick and feather bed on top.
β1494Fabyan Chron. vii. 414 And of federbeddes [they] rypped the tekys. 1570Levins Manip. 54/25 Ye Teke of a bed, teca culcitaria. c1615in Walcott William of Wykeham (1852) 167, 3 yeards of teike for a boulster.
γ1495in Pitcairn Crim. Trials I. 20*, iij le tykis de feddirbeddis. 1502Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. II. 295 For tua tikis of feddir beddis to hir. 1534Inv. Wardr. Kath. Arragon in Camden Misc. (1855) 31 A paliotte of Brusells tyke filled with bastardedowne. 1545Rates of Custome C vij, Tikes for beddes the dossen xxxvj.s. Tikes the pece iij.s. 1573–80Baret Alv. T 241 The tike of a bed: a featherbed. 1580Aberdeen Regr. (1848) II. 36 Auchtene codvarris witht sextene tyikis. 1618Sir R. Boyle in Lismore Papers (1886) I. 191, I bought 2 fetherbed tykes. 1806Forsyth Beauties Scotl. III. 146 The children sleep in beds..with tikes filled with straw.
b. ‘Used for the bed or bolster itself: as, ‘That's the tyke or tyken o' the bed: a guid feather tyke or tyken [= tyking]’’ (Suppl. to Jamieson, 1887).
More distinctively tyke o' bed, or tyke-a-bed.
▪ III. tick, n.3|tɪk|
Forms: 5 tek, tekk, 6–7 ticke, 7 tyck, 6– tick.
[Not known a 1440, the vb. (tick v.1) appearing a century later. Parallels to n. and vb. appear in Du. tik a pat, touch, tick, tikken to pat, tick, LG. tikk a touch, also a moment, instant, with ticken or tikken vb., Norw. tikke to touch lightly, also MHG. zic ‘a light touch or push’, and zicken vb. These may indicate a common OTeut. source, or they may be of later onomatopœic formation, the expression in ‘vocal gesture’ of the act or sound in question.]
1. a. A light but distinct touch; a light quick stroke; a pat, a tap. Obs. exc. dial.
c1440Promp. Parv. 487/2 Tek, or lytylle towche (K. tekk or lytyl strock), tactulus. 1580Sidney Let. 18 Oct. in Collins Lett. (1746) I. 285 When you play at Weapons..play out your Play lustilie, for indeed Tickes and Daliances are nothing in earnest. 1621S. Ward Life of Faith 84 The least ticke befalls the not, without the ouer-ruling eye and hand..of a wise God. 1625Lisle Du Bartas, Noe 13 He makes us only afraid With fingers tyck. 1674N. Fairfax Bulk & Selv. 96 If the forestroke give us but a little tick, the backstroke will be sure to give him a knocker. a1825Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Tick, a very gentle touch, by way of hint, or as a token of endearment.
b. A children's game in which the object is to overtake and touch; = tig n. 2.
1622Drayton Poly-olb. xxx. 144 The Mountaine Nymphs..doe giue each other chase, At Hood-winke, Barley-breake, at Tick, or Prison-base. 1884Black Jud. Shaks. iii, The children playing tick round the grave-stones.
2. a. A quick light dry sound, distinct but not loud, as that caused by the sudden impact of a small hard body upon a hard surface; esp. the sound produced by the alternate check and release of the train in the escapement of a watch or clock; also the similar sound made by the death-watch beetle.
Also (repeated) adverbially or interjectionally, as an imitation of this sound: see also tick-tick.
1680Aubrey Lives (1898) I. 28 He [Thomas Allen] happened to leave his watch in the chamber windowe... The maydes..hearing a thing in a case cry Tick, Tick, Tick, presently concluded that that was his Devill. 1702Ray Rem. (1780) 324 The leisurely and constant Tick of the Death-Watch. 1861Walsall Free Press 7 Dec., By a simple arrangement of ticks and intervals..the clerk was enabled to copy the [telegraphic] messages with the utmost rapidity. 1871Tyndall Fragm. Sc. (1879) I. xxii. 496 Ellicott set one clock going by the ticks of another. 1910Nation 8 Jan. 604/2 With just a ‘tick’ of his [a robin's] alarm note.
b. A beat of the heart or of the pulse.
1823Byron Juan x. xxxix, Her physician..found the tick Of his fierce pulse betoken a condition Which augured of the dead. 1855Browning An Epistle 194 Something, a word, a tick o' the blood within Admonishes.
3. a. A small dot or dash (often formed by two small strokes at an acute angle), made with a pen or pencil, to draw attention to something or to mark a name, figure, etc., in a list as having been noted or checked. In quot. 1860 used in plural for inverted commas.
1844Fraser's Mag. XXX. 88/1 Neat pencil ticks indicated favourite passages. 1860Mrs. Carlyle Lett. (1883) III. 48 To..interlard his own note with single words or whole lines of yours ‘in ticks’. 1863Reader 28 Nov. 638 A tick at the beginning and end of it..shows of what extent the passage is to be. 1865Dickens Mut. Fr. iii. i, Those lots that I'd mark with my pencil—there's a tick there, and a tick there. 1898Sir E. Hamilton in Daily News 8 Nov. 6/1 Whether the copy was entered in a large letter-book, or made on a separate sheet, depended on his having made one ‘tick’ or two ‘ticks’ at the bottom of the first page.
b. A small spot or speck of colour on the skin or coat of an animal.
1873D. Maclagan in Mod. Scot. Poets (1881) III. 181 The ticks upon his gawsy side Show him a new-rin saumon.
c. A ticked item on a list, esp. a list of birds to be observed. Also Comb., as tick-hunter, tick-hunting.
1975W. Condry Pathway to Wild vi. 93 R. S. Thomas..saw it [sc. foreign travel] as an opportunity of adding to his life-list of birds. ‘Tick-hunting’ is what bird-watchers call it. You carry a card with a list of all the birds on it and you..tick them off as you spot them. Ibid. 94 We saw a signpost on our right, ‘La Route des Lacs’, and what tick-hunter short of waterbirds could resist a lakeside road? 1981Birds Autumn 60/3 Their [sc. the Country Life team's] ticks..included glossy ibis, spoonbill, Savi's warbler, [etc.].
4. transf. (from 2). The time between two ticks of the clock; a moment, second, instant. colloq. on or to the tick, exactly at the appointed time, punctually; cf. on the dot s.v. dot n.1 4 d.
1879Browning Ned Bratts 193 Waste no tick of moment more. 1902[see commuter]. 1904Jerome Tommy & Co. (ed. Tauchn.) 236 It's all right. Can explain in two ticks. 1907P. Dare Fr. School to Stage v, At eight o'clock to the tick, the day's regular lesson's began. 1909Hornung Mr. Justice Raffles i. 6, I should have been spotted in a tick by a spy. 1913A. Bennett Regent ix. 262 If you don't clear out on the tick I'll chuck this cup and saucer down into the stalls. 1927Daily Express 6 July 3/5, I am always here on the tick myself, and I do not see why jurors should not do the same. 1963T. Parker Unknown Citizen i. 38 Won't be a tick, don't go away. 1972J. Wilson Hide & Seek i. 18 Just wait till I get these grotty old school things off, Mary. I won't be a tick. 1973P. White Eye of Storm ii. 83 Shan't be a couple of ticks, love. 1983E. Reveley In Good Faith vi. 104 Just wait a tick while I tell George where we'll be, and then we can go down together.
Add:5. Comm. The smallest amount by which prices (of commodities, stocks, etc.) are held to fluctuate.
1982Times 30 Sept. 16/8 Tick, the minimum change in price, either up or down. 1985Nat. Westm. Bank Q. Rev. Feb. 46 The tick is the smallest price movement recognized and recorded by LIFFE. In terms of the index used to price interest rate futures one tick is 0.01, one per cent of one per cent. 1987T. Wolfe Bonfire of Vanities (1988) iii. 67 He was proposing to buy $6 billion of the $10 billion in bonds offered in the auction, with the expectation of a profit of two thirty-seconds of a dollar..on every hundred dollars put up. This was known as ‘two ticks’.
▸ tick box n. chiefly Brit. (on a questionnaire or form) a small space, typically square in outline, in which a response such as a tick or cross may be placed; also fig.
1978N. Collins Husband's Story xxxviii. 338 An extra little *tick-box in all three Columns to indicate whether it was first- or second-class mail that the prisoner had in mind. 1998Community Care 20 Aug. 17/1 A continued squeeze on core spending while social service directors focus on the tick-boxes for national targets in children care, mental health, drugs and bed-blocking. 2001Independent 10 Apr. ii. 3/1 Some people in Wales have declared that they will boycott the survey because it includes no ‘Welsh’ tick box on the section on ethnicity.
▪ IV. tick, n.4 colloq. or slang.
[app. abbreviation of ticket n.1 7 in the phrase on the ticket. Chronology forbids derivation from tick v.1 3 or n.3 3, which has sometimes been conjectured.]
1. Phrases. on or upon († the) tick, on credit, on trust (cf. on ticket, ticket n.1 7); to go on tick (also go tick), run on tick, upon († in) tick, to buy on credit, run into debt.
1642Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 37999 lf. 66 They would haue..run on tick with Piggin for inke and songs, rather than haue lost the show of your presence. 1668Dryden Evening's Love iii. i, Play on tick, and lose the Indies, I'll discharge it all tomorrow. 1672Wycherley Love in Wood iii. i, A poor wretch that goes on tick for the paper he writes his lampoons on! 1849Thackeray Pendennis ii, When he had no funds he went on tick. 1861Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. i, ‘Going tick’ for everything which could by possibility be booked. 1892Stevenson Across the Plains ii. 100 This villainous habit of living upon tick.
2. Hence, Credit; trust; reputation of solvency and probity.
1668Sedley Mulb. Gard. ii. ii, I confess my Tick is not good, and I never desire to Game for more than I have about me. 1718Ramsay Christ's Kirk Gr. iii. xiv, Wasted was baith cash and tick. 1788Trifler No. 2. 26 If you can cure him, Dr. Bolus, you shall have the best cheese in my shop, and tick for another. 1894Blackmore Perlycross 105 Giving tick unlimited, or even remission of all charges.
3. A debit account; a score, account, reckoning.
1681Prideaux Lett. 21 May (Camden) 83 The Marmayd Tavern is lately broke, and we Christ Church men bear y⊇ blame of it, our ticks, as y⊇ noise of y⊇ town will have it, amounteing to 1500l. 1712Arbuthnot John Bull iii. vii, Paying ready Money, that the Maids might not run a Tick at the Market. 1755Connoisseur No. 92 He..had a long tick at the tavern. 1840J. T. J. Hewlett P. Priggins xiv, Oh, never mind paying; I've got a tick here. 1862Thackeray Philip xxxviii, There are some of my college ticks ain't paid now... Tailors' ticks, livery-stable ticks.
▪ V. tick, n.5|tɪk|
[ad. F. tic in same senses: cf. tic (which retains the Fr. spelling).]
1. The vice or morbid habit in horses called crib-biting or cribbing. Cf. tick v.3
1720W. Gibson Diet. Horses v. (1731) 83 There is another Vice which some Horses are addicted to..called the Tick.
2. A whim, a fancy; a peculiar habit or notion, an idiosyncrasy.
1900‘Sarah Grand’ Babs ix, She's got some tick in her head about being firm with me.
▪ VI. tick, n.6
[Echoic.]
A local name of the whinchat.
1848Zoologist VI. 2137 The whinchat has the nickname ‘utick’, or, more simply is sometimes merely a ‘tick’ from its well-known note.
▪ VII. tick, v.1|tɪk|
[f. tick n.3: cf. Du. tikken to pat, tick, Norw. tikke to touch lightly.]
1. a. intr. To touch or tap a thing or person lightly; esp. to bestow light touches or pats by way of caressing; to dally; esp. in phr. tick and toy; fig. to trifle. Obs. exc. dial.
1546J. Heywood Prov. (1867) 44 Their tickyng might haue tought Any yonge couple their loue tickes to haue wrought. 1550Latimer Last Serm. bef. Edw. VI 108 Stand not ticking and toying at the braunches..but strike at the roote. 1682Bunyan Holy War xii. 268 His sons began to play his pranks, and to be ticking and toying with the daughters of their lord. 1684― Adv. Sufferers Wks. (ed. Offor) II. 738 Though they may but tick and toy with thee at first, their sword may reach thy heart-blood at last. a1825Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Tick, v. to toy. Indeed the two are often used together;..two fond sweethearts are sometimes seen ‘ticking and toying’.
†b. trans. to tick up: to lift smartly, whip up.
1586Warner Alb. Eng. ii. xi, Then ticks he vp her tucked Frocke, nor did Calysto blush.
c. trans. = tig v. 2.
1913A. G. Caton Romance of Wirral viii. 69 One out of the one township would tick one out of the other. Then a chase over the country began between these two. 1969I. & P. Opie Children's Games ii. 64 In the west midlands they ‘tick’ him, and he is then said to have been ‘took’, ‘tuck’, or sometimes ‘tucked’. 1981T. Thompson Edwardian Childhoods iii. 83 We used to play..tick... You had to..tick your neighbour.
2. a. intr. Of a clock, watch, etc.: To make the light quick sound described under tick n.3 2.
1721,1746–7[see ticking ppl. a.1, vbl. n.1 2]. 1775Ash, Tick, to make a small quick noise like that of a watch. 1806J. Train Poet. Reveries 94 (Jam.) When she heard the Dead-watch tick. 1812H. & J. Smith Rej. Addr., Playhouse Mus., I heard a trowel tick against a brick. 1820W. Irving Sketch Bk. I. 249 An old fashioned clock ticked in one corner. 1864Thackeray D. Duval iv, The watch is ticking on the table before me as I write.
b. trans. with various complements: To wear away or out, bring to an end, in ticking; to throw off or deliver by ticking (as a telegraph).
c1870W. Freeland in Whistlebinkie (1890) II. 322 You [a wagtail] wag and tick the ages out Quicker still and quicker. 1880R. Broughton Sec. Th. ii. iv, More days pass;..none bringing..much change in..Gillian's life. The clocks tick it monotonously away. 1892Leisure Hour Apr. 411/2 Each slow moment as it ticked itself away was a blow to hope. 1902Strand Mag. Jan. 71/1 The young woman laughed at the answer as it was ticked off to her. 1906Daily News 20 Apr. 6 A telegraphist..ticking out tidings of the affair from its scene.
c. transf. (intr.) To beat, pulse, throb.
1868Browning Ring & Bk. i. 37 When hearts beat hard, And brains, high-blooded, ticked two centuries since.
d. intr. with over. Of an internal combustion engine: to run or work with the propeller or gears disengaged, or at a low rate of revolutions; to idle. Also transf. and fig., to function (merely); to work or operate continuously, esp. at a low capacity. Chiefly in pres. pple.
1916H. Barber Aeroplane Speaks 50 The engine is awake again and slowly ticking over. 1934Humorist 28 July 38/2 How shall I know when the influence is ticking over? 1950Sport 7–11 Apr. 22/4 It is the money in the pocket of the man-in-the-street which keeps sport, the cinemas and the B.B.C. ticking over. 1952A. Bevan In Place of Fear iv. 70 Old out-of-date steel plants were kept ticking over by means of bank overdrafts. 1953C. A. Lindbergh Spirit of St. Louis i. i. 9, I..pull back my throttle until the propellor is just ticking over. 1960‘M. Cronin’ Begin with Gun vii. 81 Just the way you said, chief. All ticking over nicely. 1977F. Webb Go for Out v. 97 The car engine fired. He let it tick-over for a moment, then switched it off.
e. intr. Of a taximeter (cab): to make a ticking sound while recording the fare due for a period of hire, esp. while waiting; also quasi-trans. with complement. With up, to record an increasing fare.
1926W. S. Maugham Constant Wife iii. 208, I don't want to hurry you, but the taxi is just ticking its head off. 1930E. P. Oppenheim Million Pound Deposit xi. 104 ‘Got a car?’ she enquired. ‘No, a taxi, ticking up like blazes.’ 1938E. Bowen Death of Heart iii. vi. 438 A taxi ticked outside. 1940Dylan Thomas Portrait of Artist as Young Dog 155 The taxi was ticking away, and that worried Beatrice and Betti, and at last the sisters and the cousin and Mary drove together to the church. 1954T. Rattigan Sleeping Prince i. i. 44 Mary. The taxi isn't ticking up, is it? Regent. No. They will tell us when it arrives. 1966A. L. Coburn Autobiogr. vi. 72 He..whisked away in the cab which he had kept ticking at the door. 1979J. Grimond Memoirs vi. 93 The General was alarmed to find a taxi waiting, the clock on it ticking up from {pstlg}15.8.6 to {pstlg}15.8.9.
f. intr. fig. To work, function, operate; what makes (someone) tick, what motivates (a person). colloq.
1931E. F. Benson Mapp & Lucia i. 26, I want to get roused up again and shaken and made to tick. 1947Auden Age of Anxiety (1948) i. 13 They watch others with a covert but passionate curiosity. What makes them tick? 1957Listener 3 Oct. 541/1 Television could show the minds ticking; no need here for those stage directions. 1964Mrs. L. B. Johnson White House Diary 6 Jan. (1970) 31 Then came the big event of the day—the White House staff reception... We would be meeting..everybody who makes the house tick. 1971A. Price Alamut Ambush xii. 151, I still don't quite know what makes Razzak tick. You were going to find out about him. 1980Nature 24 Apr. 695/2 The first step to correct this source of insecurity and fear is to learn what makes it ‘tick’.
g. intr. with by or away: (of time, events, etc.) to pass, come to an end. Cf. sense 2 b.
1937C. Odets Golden Boy 42 You don't know what it means to sit around here and watch the months go ticking by! 1974Publishers Weekly 30 Sept. 15 (Advt.), Their father, his own life ticking away after a freak accident, must prepare his children for the grueling battle ahead. 1981G. Boycott In Fast Lane xii. 92 A statement was expected by the hour but each hour ticked away without any news.
3. a. trans. To mark (a name, an item in a list, etc.) with a tick; to mark off with a tick, as noted, passed, or done with. Also fig.; colloq. to identify.
1854Dickens Hard T. i. xiv. 108 He was not sure that if he had been required..to tick her off into columns in a parliamentary return, he would have quite known how to divide her. 1861― Gt. Expect. xxxiv, I compared each with the bill, and ticked it off. 1871L. Stephen Playgr. Eur. (1894) xiii. 323 One more task ticked off from their memorandum book. 1874Green Short Hist. vi. §6. 335 Fragments of his [Thos. Cromwell's] papers still show us with what a business-like brevity he ticked off human lives. 1893G. Allen Scallywag I. 17 Ticking him off on her list. a1912Mod. I ticked him off as soon as I set eyes on him. 1932A. Huxley Let. 1 Oct. (1969) 363 All that stupid unreal rhetoric of fascism... It's beautifully ticked off, in its earlier and different manifestation, by Tolstoy. 1966N. Mailer Cannibals & Christians (1967) i. 38 Could you tick off just a few of the major issues you think will be in the campaign against the Democrats?
b. To mark with small ticks or spots of colour. (But cf. ticked a., ticking vbl. n.1 3.)
191019th Cent. May 915 The white ticked here and there with black.
c. To reprimand or scold. Cf. to tell off s.v. tell v. 23 d. colloq. (orig. Mil. slang).
1915W. Owen Let. 2 Nov. (1967) 365 He has been ‘ticked-off’ four or five times for it; but is not yet shot at dawn. 1936[see essence n. 8]. 1957Listener 29 Aug. 297/1 ‘Ticked off’ by one of the boys for leaving his car unlocked and complete with ignition key. 1978K. Amis Jake's Thing xvii. 182 He'd ticked Ed off without being told to.
d. To annoy, anger; to dispirit. Cf. ticked ppl. a. c. U.S. slang.
1975Washington Post 19 Feb. c 12/7 We got hit somethin' fierce. It really ticked me off! We lost everything! 1979R. L. Simon Peking Duck xvi. 117 Shit, it ticks me off I spent all the money on this tour and look what happens.
Add:[3.] e. intr. To grumble or complain. slang (orig. Forces').
1925Fraser & Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 281 Tick, to, to grumble. 1958L. Little Dear Boys i. iv. 46 He listened to them ticking about the food, not having enough pocket money, the cold, being in by quarter to eleven. 1971B. W. Aldiss Soldier Erect 77 Certainly there was always something to tick about. Our manoeuvres were pure hell—‘total aggs’, as the phrase went.
▪ VIII. tick, v.2 colloq. or slang.|tɪk|
[f. tick n.4]
1. a. intr. To ‘go on tick’ (see tick n.4 1); to deal with a tradesman, etc. on credit, to take credit; to run into debt, leave one's debts unpaid.
1648Winyard Midsummer-Moon 6 He must tick with Charon, and have his Epitaph writ in chalk. a1683Oldham Poet. Wks. (1686) 90 Who thither flock to Ghostly Confessor, To clear old debts, and tick with Heaven for more. 1742Fielding Miss Lucy in Town Wks. 1882 X. 310, I gave that sum to my wife..to buy her clothes. I'll take it from her again, and let her tick with the tradesmen.
b. trans. To leave (an amount) owing to be entered to one's debit. Also const. up.
1674S. Vincent Y. Gallant's Acad. 80 He..tick[s] his reckoning, that he may keep half a Crown in his Pocket. 1712S. Centlivre Perplexed Lovers i. i, The Devil a bottle can I tick because he has forsworn the tavern. c1926‘Mixer’ Transport Workers' Song Bk. 42 You've never ‘ticked’ a penny Whilst you worked. 1947M. Morris in ‘B. James’ Austral. Short Stories (1963) 355 Best be off soon. No use ticking things up. 1966‘J. Hackston’ Father clears Out 114 Going on the slate and ticking up a few rounds of drinks.
2. a. intr. To give credit; to supply goods, professional aid, etc. on credit.
1712Arbuthnot John Bull iii. viii, The money went to the lawyers; counsel won't tick, Sir. 1721Amherst Terræ Fil. No. 46 (1754) 247 Smarts in Oxford..who cannot afford to be thus fine any longer than their mercers, taylors, shoemakers,..will tick with them. 1840J. T. J. Hewlett P. Priggins xiii, Sykes is your man—ticks for ever, and never duns.
b. trans. To give (a person) credit.
1842C. J. Apperley (‘Nimrod’) Life Sportsman v, He never refused me a tandem, and he ticked me for a terrier at once.
▪ IX. † tick, v.3 Obs. rare.
[f. tick n.5]
intr. Of a horse: To practise crib-biting; = crib v. 9.
1720W. Gibson Diet. Horses v. (1731) 84 While they do this, they give a Belch through their throat, which is that which we call Ticking. Some Horses Tick upon the Trench, and some..upon any post or rail they can come at..because it is sometimes communicated by example, a Ticker ought therefore to stand by himself.
▪ X. tick
variant of teak. |