Word.ws English Dictionary

tick

UK/tɪk/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

New Zealand/tək/

tick noun: a tiny woodland arachnid of the suborder Ixodida.

Noun (1)

tick (plural ticks)

  1. A tiny woodland arachnid of the suborder Ixodida.
    • Sucking up all you can / Sucking up all you can suck and suck / Working up under my patience like a little tick / Fat little parasite (parasite) / Suck me dry / My fruit is bruised and borrowed / You thieving bastards / You have turned my blood cold and bitter2001, “Ticks & Leeches”, in Maynard James Keenan (lyrics), Lateralus, performed by Tool, Track 8

Noun (2)

tick (plural ticks)

  1. A relatively quiet but sharp sound generally made repeatedly by moving machinery.
    • The steady tick of the clock provided a comforting background for the conversation.
  2. A mark on any scale of measurement; a unit of measurement.
    • At midday, the long bond is up a tick.
  3. A jiffy (unit of time defined by basic timer frequency).
  4. (colloquial) A short period of time, particularly a second.
    • I'll be back in a tick.
  5. A periodic increment of damage or healing caused by an ongoing status effect.
  6. Each of the fixed time periods, in a tick-based game, in which players or characters may perform a set number of actions.
  7. (Commonwealth) A mark (✓) made to indicate agreement, correctness, or acknowledgement.
    • Indicate that you are willing to receive marketing material by putting a tick in the box
    • Kate's choice to don her pink suit again now, at the height of the Barbiecore trend, shows the royal really does have her finger on the pulse. 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
    Synonyms:
    checkmark
  8. A bird seen (or heard) by a birdwatcher, for the first time that day, year, trip, etc., and thus added to a list of observed birds.
    • 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
    • A twitcher's list is very democratic. Each bird counts as one tick. There are no extra points for beauty or rarity. The humble sparrow counts just as much as a Wedge-tailed Eagle or a Paradise Parrot.2005, Sean Dooley, The Big Twitch, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 41
  9. A whinchat (Saxicola rubetra).
  10. A tap or light touch.
  11. A slight speck.

Verb (1)

tick (third-person singular simple present ticks, present participle ticking, simple past and past participle ticked)

  1. To 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
  2. To make a tick or checkmark.
  3. (informal, intransitive) To work or operate, especially mechanically.
    • He took the computer apart to see how it ticked.
    • I wonder what makes her tick.
  4. To strike gently; to pat.
    • Therefore you Preachers out vvith your ſvvords and ſtrike at the root; ſpeak againſt covetouſneſs, and cry out upon it. Stand not ticking and toying at the branches, nor at the boughs, for then there vvill be nevv boughs and branches ſpring again of them, but ſtrike at the root, […]1550, Hugh Latimer, “Sermon XIV. Preached before King Edward the Sixth and His Most Honourable Council, in His Court at Westminster, in the Year 1550.”, in The Sermons of the Right Reverend Father in...
  5. (transitive) To add (a bird) to a list of birds that have been seen (or heard).

Noun (3)

tick (countable and uncountable, plural ticks)

  1. (uncountable) Ticking.
  2. A 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

Noun (4)

tick (uncountable)

  1. (UK, colloquial) Credit, trust.
    • When he had no funds he went on tick. When he could get no credit he went without, and was almost as happy.1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 2, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850...
    • Immediately he got any money he would pay his debt; if there was any over he would spend it; if there was not—and there seldom was—he would begin to go on tick again.1903, Samuel Butler, chapter 42, in The Way of All Flesh
    Synonyms:
    credit, trust

Verb (2)

tick (third-person singular simple present ticks, present participle ticking, simple past and past participle ticked)

  1. (intransitive) To go on trust, or credit.
  2. (transitive) To give tick; to trust.

Noun (5)

tick (plural ticks)

  1. (obsolete, place names) A goat.
    • Tickhill, Tickham, Ticknock, Tickenhall Drive, Tickenhill Manor, Tickenhurst

tick meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

tick in Hindi

arachnid
टिक ṭik, किलनी kilnī

tick in Tamil

arachnid
உண்ணி uṇṇi
quiet but sharp, repeated sound
டக் ṭak, டக்டக் ṭakṭak

tick in Marathi

arachnid
गोचीड gocīḍ

tick in Urdu

arachnid
ٹک ṭik, کلنی kilnī
More languagesFewer languages
tick in Bengali
টিক করুন, টিক দিতে, টিক করতে
tick in Telugu
టిక్ చేయండి, టిక్, టిక్ చెయ్యడానికి
tick in Malayalam
പട്ടുണ്ണി paṭṭuṇṇi, വട്ടൻ vaṭṭaṉ
tick in Kannada
ಉಣ್ಣಿ uṇṇi
tick in Punjabi
ਚਿੱਚੜ ciccaṛ
tick in Gujarati
ટિક કરો, ટીક કરો, ટિક
tick in Odia
ଟିଙ୍କ ṭiṅka, କିରନି kirani, ଗଏରା gaerā
tick in Sinhala
කිණිතුල්ලෝ kiṇitullō
tick in Assamese
চিকৰা sikora
tick in Nepali
टिक ṭik
tick in Tagalog
kato, garapata, gurlit-tsek, panungkad
tick in Arabic
قُرَادَة qurāda, قُرَاد qurād
tick in Malay
sengkenit, calit
tick in Indonesian
caplak, tik, mengetik, mencontreng
tick in Persian
کنه kane, تارو tāru, نارد nārad, کرنه karne
tick in Thai
เห็บ hèp
tick in Vietnamese
bét, ve
tick in Myanmar
မွှား hmwa:

Examples of tick in a sentence

  • Put a cross for a wrong answer and a tick for a right one.
  • It really ticks me off when people don't use proper punctuation.
  • Lice, fleas, ticks, and mites are widely spread parasites.

All 40 example sentences with tick

Synonyms of tick

27 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of tick

Forms of tick

Noun
pluralticks
Verb
third-person singular presentticks
present participleticking
past participleticked
pastticked

Past tense of tick: ticked

Plural of tick: ticks

Origin of tick

From Middle English tyke, teke, from Old English ticia (“parasitic animal, tick”), from Proto-West Germanic *tīkō, compare Dutch teek, German Zecke.

From Middle English *tik, tek, tyche (“light touch, tap”), from the verb (see Etymology 3 below). Compare Dutch tik (“a pat, tap”), Middle High German zic (“a slight touch”).

From Middle English ticken, tiken, probably from Old English *ticcian (“to touch, tap”), from Proto-West Germanic *tikkōn (“to touch, tap”), cognate with German zecken (“to nudge, poke, jab”). Doublet of tig.

Words formed from tick

Phrases with tick

18 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with tick

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about tick

What does tick mean?
Tick means a tiny woodland arachnid of the suborder Ixodida.
What is tick in Hindi?
Tick in Hindi is टिक (ṭik), किलनी (kilnī). See Tick meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is tick?
Tick can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce tick?
Tick is pronounced /tɪk/ (UK).
What is the plural of tick?
The plural of tick is ticks.

Words near tick in the dictionary

  1. ticilimumab
  2. Ticinese
  3. ticing
  4. Ticino
  5. Ticinum
  6. tick
  7. tick a lock
  8. tick a lot of boxes
  9. tick all the boxes
  10. tick and flick
  11. tick and tie

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tick (page history and authors); tick (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tick (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tick (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-tick.ogg, en-au-tick.ogg.

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