Word.ws English Dictionary

ticking a lock

ticking a lock is the present participle and gerund of tick a lock.

Meaning of tick a lock

Verb

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

  1. To keep quiet or keep a secret.
    • “Tick-a-lock,” he pronounced; all the while twisting his fingers about his lips, and further all the while holding to his constant, dramatic, and overly-serious stare over me.2012, C. David Murphy, A Diary's House

Questions about ticking a lock

What is ticking a lock the present participle and gerund of?
Ticking a lock is the present participle and gerund of tick a lock.

Words near ticking a lock in the dictionary

  1. tickier
  2. tickies
  3. tickiest
  4. tickin'
  5. ticking
  6. ticking a lock
  7. ticking all the boxes
  8. ticking and toying
  9. ticking and tying
  10. ticking away
  11. ticking bomb

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ticking a lock (page history and authors); tick a lock (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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Cite this entry: “ticking a lock.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ticking_a_lock. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.