tick

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The short, regular sound made by a clock or watch.

   In the silent room, you could hear the tick of the clock.

2. 2
   verb

   To make the short, regular sound of a clock or watch.

   The clock ticked quietly on the wall.

3. 3
   noun

   A small insect-like creature that bites and feeds on the blood of animals and people.

   After the hike, she found a tick on her leg.

4. 4
   noun

   A very short period of time; a moment.

   I'll be back in a tick.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Tick has several unrelated histories. The tick meaning a check mark began in Middle English with the sense “to pat” or “touch”; it is related to tickle, although its deeper history is obscure, and the same word came to imitate a clock’s sound and to denote the heart as ticker. The bloodsucking parasite is a separate Old English word, while tick meaning credit is a shortening of ticket, referring to a written promise to pay.

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”).

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External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary