Word.ws English Dictionary

taken a licking and kept on ticking

taken a licking and kept on ticking is the past participle of take a licking and keep on ticking.

Meaning of take a licking and keep on ticking

Verb

take a licking and keep on ticking (third-person singular simple present takes a licking and keeps on ticking, present participle taking a licking and keeping on ticking, simple past took a licking and kept on ticking, past participle taken a licking and kept on ticking)

  1. (idiomatic) To be tough; to have endurance; to have the capacity to absorb stress or damage, but still be able to function.
    • How am I supposed to knock these other guys off. My wild card is nothing but defensive. I take a licking and keep on ticking. Big whoop.2008, George R. R. Martin et al., Inside Straight, page 124

Questions about taken a licking and kept on ticking

What is taken a licking and kept on ticking the past participle of?
Taken a licking and kept on ticking is the past participle of take a licking and keep on ticking.

Words near taken a licking and kept on ticking in the dictionary

  1. taken a hit
  2. taken a joke
  3. taken a knee
  4. taken a knife to a gunfight
  5. taken a leaf out of someone's book
  6. taken a licking and kept on ticking
  7. taken a liking to
  8. taken a listen
  9. taken a load off
  10. taken a long walk off a short pier
  11. taken a long walk on a short pier

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: taken a licking and kept on ticking (page history and authors); take a licking and keep on ticking (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: “taken a licking and kept on ticking.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/taken_a_licking_and_kept_on_ticking. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.