make tick
make tick verb: to cause someone or something to operate the way it does.
Verb
make tick (third-person singular simple present makes tick, present participle making tick, simple past and past participle made tick)
- To cause someone or something to operate the way it does.
- I honestly don't know the specifics that make him tick, and I wish I did.2005, Cherie Priest, Four and Twenty Blackbirds, →ISBN, page 91
- What makes kinky people tick? Is it the desire for cheap thrills? The idea of flaunting social morés? The restless desire for something different than traditional sexual practices?2005, Annabelle du Fouet, “Kinksters and kinksterettes—Who are these people, anyway?” (chapter 1), in Weather Balloons Make Rotten Sex Toys, Ellora's Cave, →ISBN, page 22
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see make, tick.
Forms of make tick
| third-person singular present | makes tick |
|---|---|
| present participle | making tick |
| past participle | made tick |
| past | made tick |
Origin of make tick
An allusion to the workings of a clock making it operate with a ticking noise.
Questions about make tick
- What does make tick mean?
- Make tick means to cause someone or something to operate the way it does.
- What part of speech is make tick?
- Make tick is a verb.
- What is the past tense of make tick?
- The past tense of make tick is made tick.
Words near make tick in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: make tick (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “make tick.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/make_tick. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.