Tick Definition | Definition of Tick at Dictionary.com

tick

1 [tik]

–noun

1.	a slight, sharp, recurring click, tap, or beat, as of a clock.

2.	Chiefly British Informal. a moment or instant.

3.	a small dot, mark, check, or electronic signal, as used to mark off an item on a list, serve as a reminder, or call attention to something.

Stock Exchange.

a.	a movement in the price of a stock, bond, or option.

b.	the smallest possible tick on a given exchange.

5.	Manège. a jumping fault consisting of a light touch of a fence with one or more feet.

6.	a small contrasting spot of color on the coat of a mammal or the feathers of a bird.

–verb (used without object)

7.	to emit or produce a tick, like that of a clock.

8.	to pass as with ticks of a clock: The hours ticked by.

–verb (used with object)

9.	to sound or announce by a tick or ticks: The clock ticked the minutes.

10.	to mark with a tick or ticks; check (usually fol. by off); to tick off the items on the memo.

—Verb phrase

11.

tick off, Slang.

a.	to make angry: His mistreatment of the animals really ticked me off.

b.	Chiefly British. to scold severely: The manager will tick you off if you make another mistake.

—Idiom

12.	what makes one tick, the motive or explanation of one's behavior: The biographer failed to show what made Herbert Hoover tick.

Origin:
1400–50; late ME tek little touch; akin to D tik a touch, pat, Norw tikka to touch or shove slightly. See tickle

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tick

2 [tik]

–noun

1.	any of numerous bloodsucking arachnids of the order Acarina, including the families Ixodidae and Argasidae, somewhat larger than the related mites and having a barbed proboscis for attachment to the skin of warm-blooded vertebrates: some ticks are vectors of disease.

2.	sheeptick.

Origin:
bef. 900; ME teke, tyke, OE ticia (perh. sp. error for tiica (i.e. tīca) or ticca); akin to LG tieke, G Zecke

tick

3 [tik]

–noun

1.	the cloth case of a mattress, pillow, etc., containing hair, feathers, or the like.

ticking.

Also called bedtick.

Origin:
1425–75; late ME tikke, teke, tyke (c. D tijk, G Zieche) ≪ L tēca, thēca < Gk th

kē case

tick

4 [tik]

–noun Chiefly British Informal.

1.	a score or account.

—Idiom

2.	on tick, on credit or trust: We bought our telly on tick.

Origin:
1635–45; short for ticket

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Link To tick

tick¹ (tĭk)

A light, sharp, clicking sound made repeatedly by a machine, such as a clock.
Chiefly British A moment.
A light mark used to check off or call attention to an item.
Informal A unit on a scale; a degree: when interest rates move up a tick.

v. ticked, tick·ing, ticks

v. intr.

To emit recurring clicking sounds: as the clock ticked.
To function characteristically or well: machines ticking away; curious about what makes people tick.

v. tr.

To count or record with or as if with the sound of ticks: a clock ticking the hours; a taxi meter ticking the fare.
To mark or check off (a listed item) with a tick: ticked off each name as the roll was called.

Phrasal Verb(s):
tick off Informal To make angry or annoyed: Constant delays ticked me off.

[Middle English tek, light tap.]

tick² (tĭk)

Any of numerous small bloodsucking parasitic arachnids of the family Ixodidae, many of which transmit febrile diseases, such as Rocky Mountain spotted fever and Lyme disease.
Any of various usually wingless, louselike insects of the family Hippobosciddae that are parasitic on sheep, goats, and other animals.

[Middle English teke, tik, perhaps from Old English *ticca.]

tick³ (tĭk)

1. A cloth case for a mattress or pillow.
2. A light mattress without inner springs.
Ticking.

[Middle English tikke, probably from Middle Dutch tīke, ultimately from Latin thēca, receptacle, from Greek thēkē; see dhē- in Indo-European roots.]

tick⁴ (tĭk)

n. Chiefly British
Credit or an amount of credit.

[Short for ticket.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source

Tick

Tick\, n. [Abbrev. from ticket.] Credit; trust; as, to buy on, or upon, tick.

Tick

Tick\, v. i. 1. To go on trust, or credit.

2. To give tick; to trust.

Tick

Tick\, n. [OE. tike, teke; akin to D. teek, G. zecke. Cf. Tike a tick.] (Zo["o]l.) (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

Tick\, n. [LL. techa, teca, L. theca case, Gr. ?, fr. ? to put. See Thesis.]

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

2. Ticking. See Ticking, n.

Tick

Tick\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Ticked; p. pr. & vb. n. Ticking.] [Probably of imitative origin; cf. D. tikken, LG. ticken.]

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

2. To strike gently; to pat.

Stand not ticking and toying at the branches. --Latimer.

Tick

Tick\, n. 1. A quick, audible beat, as of a clock.

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

3. (Zo["o]l.) The whinchat; -- so called from its note. [Prov. Eng.]

Death tick. (Zo["o]l.) See Deathwatch.

Tick

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. --Dickens.

Language Translation for : tick

Spanish: tictac,

German: das Ticken,

Japanese: チクタク

More Translations »

tick (1)

"parasitic animal," O.E. ticia, from W.Gmc. *tik- (cf. M.Du. teke, Du. teek, O.H.G. zecho, Ger. Zecke "tick"), of unknown origin. Fr. tique (1464), It. zecca are Gmc. loan-words.

tick (2)

1440, "light touch or tap," probably cognate with Du. tik, M.H.G. zic, and perhaps echoic. Meaning "sound made by a clock" is probably first recorded 1549; tick-tock is recorded from 1848. To tick (someone) off is recorded from 1915, originally "to reprimand, scold;" meaning "to annoy" is recorded from 1975.

tick (3)

"credit," 1642, shortening of ticket (q.v.).

Tick

The minimum upward or downward movement in the price of a security.

Investopedia Commentary

Historically, stocks didn't trade in decimals. A stock would move in amounts of 1/8, 1/16, or 1/32 of a dollar (the tick). This changed when the decimal system was brought in.

Related Links

Understanding The Ticker Tape

tick

A movement in the price or price quotation of a security or contract. See also downtick, minimum tick, uptick.

TICK

A short-term technical indicator that describes the difference between the number of stocks whose last sale occurred on an uptick and the number of stocks whose last sale occurred on a downtick. A high positive TICK is generally considered a short-term signal of a strong market. Contrarians consider a high positive TICK to have bearish implications.

Main Entry: tick
Pronunciation: 'tik
Function: noun
1 : any of numerous bloodsucking arachnids that constitute the acarine superfamily Ixodoidea, aremuch larger than the closely related mites, attach themselves to warm-blooded vertebrates to feed, include important vectors of various infectious diseases of humans and lower animals, and although theimmature larva has but six legs, may be readily distinguished from an insect by the complete lack of external segmentation
2 : any of various usually wingless parasitic dipteranflies (as the sheep ked)

tick ² (tĭk)
n.

Any of numerous small bloodsucking parasitic arachnids of the families Ixodidae and Argasidae, many of which transmit febrile diseases, such as Rocky Mountain spotted fever and Lyme disease.
Any of various usually wingless, louselike insects of the family Hippobosciddae that are parasitic on sheep, goats, and other animals.

tick (tĭk) Pronunciation Key
Any of numerous small, parasitic arachnids of the suborder Ixodida that feed on the blood of animals. Like their close relatives the mites and unlike spiders, ticks have no division between cephalothorax and abdomen. Ticks differ from mites by being generally larger and having a sensory pit at the end of their first pair of legs. Many ticks transmit febrile diseases, such as Rocky Mountain spotted fever and Lyme disease.

tick
1. A jiffy (sense 1). 2. In simulations, the discrete unit of time that passes between iterations of the simulation mechanism. In AI applications, this amount of time is often left unspecified, since the only constraint of interest is the ordering of events. This sort of AI simulation is often pejoratively referred to as "tick-tick-tick" simulation, especially when the issue of simultaneity of events with long, independent chains of causes is handwaved. 3. In the FORTH language, a single quote character.
[The Jargon File]

tick

In addition to the idiom beginning with tick, also see clock is ticking; tight as a tick; what makes one tick.

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