Word.ws English Dictionary

makes tick

makes tick is the third-person singular simple present indicative of make tick.

Meaning of make tick

Verb

make tick (third-person singular simple present makes tick, present participle making tick, simple past and past participle made tick)

  1. (colloquial) 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
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see make, tick.

Questions about makes tick

What is makes tick the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Makes tick is the third-person singular simple present indicative of make tick.

Words near makes tick in the dictionary

  1. makes the weather
  2. makes the welkin ring
  3. makes the world go around
  4. makes the wrong turn at Albuquerque
  5. makes things interesting
  6. makes tick
  7. makes time
  8. makes time with
  9. makes tracks
  10. makes trial of
  11. makes up

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: makes tick (page history and authors); 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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “makes tick.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/makes_tick. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.