TICK • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • 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

... what a little busybody it is! May the frogs tick her! Must needs know everything. Lie down and sleep! (NAN lies down.) That's right! (Tucks her up.) That's right! There now, if you know too much ...

— Redemption and Two Other Plays • Leo Tolstoy et al

... America associated with rural areas or small towns and villages; manifests as fever, headache, and painfully swollen lymph nodes; disease progresses rapidly and without antibiotic treatment leads to pneumonic form with a death rate in excess of 50%. Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever - tick-borne viral disease; infection may also result from exposure to infected animal blood or tissue; geographic distribution includes Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe; sudden onset of ...

— The 2005 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency

... steam, was capable of providing was positively bewildering. They whirled through Miss Mapp's head like the autumn leaves which she admired so much, and she tried in vain to catch them all, and, when caught, to tick them off on her fingers. Each, moreover, furnished diverse and legitimate conclusions. For instance (taking ...

— Miss Mapp • Edward Frederic Benson

... goes by: and clocks still chime And stars are changing patterns in the dark, And watches tick, and over-puissant Time Benumbs the eager brain. The dogs that bark, The trains that roar and rattle in the night, The very cats that prowl, all quiet find And leave the darkness empty, silent quite: Sleep comes to ...

— Songs for a Little House • Christopher Morley

... was homespun and lowel.[HW: ?] We lived in a log house with a dirt floor and the cracks was chinked with mud and our bed was some poles nailed against the wall with two legs out on the dirt floor, and we pulled grass and put in a lowel[HW: ?] bed tick. My aunty would get old dresses, old coats, and old ...

— Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves - Arkansas Narratives Part 3 • Works Projects Administration

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