How to use tick in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb

Tick means a tiny woodland arachnid of the suborder Ixodida. Example: “The steady tick of the clock provided a comforting background for the conversation.”

Examples of tick by meaning

nounA relatively quiet but sharp sound generally made repeatedly by moving machinery.

The steady tick of the clock provided a comforting background for the conversation.

nounA mark on any scale of measurement; a unit of measurement.

At midday, the long bond is up a tick.

nounA short period of time, particularly a second.

I'll be back in a tick.

nounA mark (✓) made to indicate agreement, correctness, or acknowledgement.

Indicate that you are willing to receive marketing material by putting a tick in the box
That, paired with her statement belt and the fact pearls are having a real fashion moment (courtesy of the Met Gala) is three big ticks from us.2023 May 26, Natasha Harding, Alexandria Dale, “Kate Middleton just re-wore her Alexander McQueen baby pink trouser suit”, in Women's Health

nounA bird seen (or heard) by a birdwatcher, for the first time that day, year, trip, etc., and thus added to a list of...

There are few birders who have not had stringy ticks on their lists at some stage.1980, Bill Oddie, Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book, page 76
Each bird counts as one tick.2005, Sean Dooley, The Big Twitch, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 41

verbTo make a clicking noise similar to the movement of the hands of an analog clock.

As 2020 ticked over into 2021, some 240 worksites were active on HS2's Phase 1 route between London and the West Midlands.2021 January 13, Richard Clinnick, “HS2 reaches key milestones and gears up for a busy 2021”, in Rail, page 12

verbTo work or operate, especially mechanically.

He took the computer apart to see how it ticked.
I wonder what makes her tick.

nounA sheet that wraps around a mattress; the cover of a mattress, containing the filling.

She had an old tick for mattress that she stuffed with dried moss.1997, Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain, London: Hodder and Stoughton, page 101

More sentences with tick

Put a cross for a wrong answer and a tick for a right one.From the entry cross
It really ticks me off when people don't use proper punctuation.From the entry tick off
Lice, fleas, ticks, and mites are widely spread parasites.From the entry parasite
The escapement is the reason why clocks tick.From the entry escapement
The catcher held onto the foul tick for the out.From the entry foul tick
The years just continue to tick past.From the entry tick past
Place a tick in the box.From the entry box
So what is it that makes SBB (Swiss national railways) tick?2025 October 15, Vitali Vitaliev, “The recipe for Swiss bliss”, in RAIL, number 1046, page 68. From the entry incorporate
But another tick bite can cause AGS to flare up again.2023 August 21, Mark Lallanilla, “Alpha-gal syndrome: LI county a hot spot for tick-borne meat allergy”, in New York Post. From the entry ags
The update will also include an update to tick rate, in addition to visual changes.2023 March 22, Calum Patterson, “Counter-Strike 2 revealed: Source 2 update overhauls CS:GO maps, graphics, smokes, more”, in Dexerto…. From the entry subtick
Let's deactivate the "tick tock tick tock biological clock time bomb."2019, Susan G. Schiff, Fertility Fuel. From the entry tick-tock biological clock
We investigated the presence of CNM in ornithophagous ticks from migrating birds.2015 July 25, “Candidatus Neoehrlichia mikurensis in Ticks from Migrating Birds in Sweden”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI. From the entry investigate
That triangle of tangled undergrowth was infested with clothes-grabbing burdocks (“buzzies” we called them) and beggar's ticks.2015, Jim Bennet, South End Boy: Growing up in Halifax in the tumultuous '30s and '40s, →ISBN. From the entry buzzie
Or we think of an absolute time which ticks on regardless of events, agents, causes and effects.2013, Roy Abraham Varghese, The Missing Link, page 113. From the entry tick on
Auditors do not necessarily tick and tie every single position held in a fund.2012, Jason A. Scharfman, Private Equity Operational Due Diligence, page 239. From the entry tick and tie
It is the midges, clegs and ticks you should be on the lookout for.2011, Denis Brook, Phil Hinchliffe, North to the Cape: A Trek from Fort William to Cape Wrath, page 49. From the entry cleg
But he not only ticks all the boxes mentioned by Mr.2010 November 7, Alastair Macaulay, “Dance Review: Luminaries and Hopefuls Join to Ensure Choreography’s Future”, in New York Times…. From the entry tick all the boxes
And in my eagerness to tick items off on my "next action" lists, my productivity ramps up.2009 December 22, Louisa Kamps, “The Distraction Diet”, in Elle. From the entry tundra
None of that should affect the beat, or pulse itself, which ticks on regardless.2008, Ian Assersohn, First Time Bars - A Choral Singer's Handbook, page 6. From the entry tick on
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. From the entry make tick
The idiosoma of all ticks carries a number of sensory and glandular structures.2005, Biology of disease vectors, Burlington, MA : Elsevier, page 47. From the entry hypertrichy
They hear the arhythmic tick of the hot water pipe contracting behind the bath.1997, Ian McEwan, Enduring Love, Vintage (1998), page 84. From the entry arhythmic
Laurie laughed while I burned three kangaroo ticks from my legs.1937, Ion L. Idriess, Over the Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 82. From the entry camp
Pick out these roles, and you'll get a better grip on how the group ticks and who's who in the zoo.2024 June 1, Logan Mind, Emotional Intelligence for Social Success: Enhance Your Relationship Skills. Practical Strategies to Communicate…. From the entry who's who in the zoo
I like composing acrostics while calculating the number of oxpeckers cleaning ticks from buffalo, giraffes and fellow rhinos.2021, Graham Fulbright, Snowcub, Kibworth Beauchamp, Leics.: Matador, →ISBN, pages 219–220. From the entry bicorn
Fingal counted eleven tick bites - that he could see.McLean, John (2019), The John Donne Experiment, page 293. From the entry aintcha
If you've ever seen those blue ticks on Whatsapp with no response, and become increasingly irate, you've been R-bombed.2018 May 26, Ellen Scott, “R-bombing is the new dating term you've likely already put up with”, in Metro, London: DMG Media, →ISSN, →OCLC…. From the entry r-bomb
A tick is an event that occurs for every N low-level tickable statements executed by the parser within the declare block.2017, Branko Ajzele, Mastering PHP 7, page 143. From the entry tickable
It is thought that amitraz is a potential agonist of the octopaminergic system located in the tick synganglion.2015 July 10, “SNP Analysis Infers that Recombination Is Involved in the Evolution of Amitraz Resistance in Rhipicephalus microplus”, in…. From the entry synganglion

Meaning of tick

noun A tiny woodland arachnid of the suborder Ixodida.
noun A relatively quiet but sharp sound generally made repeatedly by moving machinery.
noun A mark on any scale of measurement; a unit of measurement.

Full definition of tick

Questions about tick in a sentence

How do you use tick in a sentence?: Tick is used as a noun and verb. For example: “The steady tick of the clock provided a comforting background for the conversation.”
What is a short sentence with tick?: “Each bird counts as one tick.”
What does tick mean?: Tick means a tiny woodland arachnid of the suborder Ixodida.

Adapted from Wiktionary: tick (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use tick in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/tick. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.