Word.ws English Dictionary

making tick

making tick is the present participle and gerund 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 making tick

What is making tick the present participle and gerund of?
Making tick is the present participle and gerund of make tick.

Words near making tick in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: making 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.

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