ticking on

Verb

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

1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see tick, on.; to continue ticking.
   • He shuts off the engine, which ticks on mechanically, cooling down.2003, Tom Wilkins, The Demise of The Color War Captain, page 121
2. (figuratively, or units of time) To elapse;
   • Slowly the moments ticked on; once he murmured the name of the girl he loved.1912, Kate Everest, The Searchlight on the Throne: Reminiscences of an Ex-ambassador, page 132
3. (broadly, figuratively) To continue; to keep occurring.
   • The banner flutters and love of the group / stifles the petty unmanly doubt / which ticks on, a liberal superstition.2012, Charles Kraszewski, Irresolute Heresiarch: Catholicism, Gnosticism and Paganism in the Poetry of Czesław Miłosz, page 68