tick

noun

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 bitter”

2. 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.”

3. A mark on any scale of measurement; a unit of measurement.

   “At midday, the long bond is up a tick.”

4. A jiffy (unit of time defined by basic timer frequency).
5. (colloquial)A short period of time, particularly a second.

   “I'll be back in a tick.”

6. A periodic increment of damage or healing caused by an ongoing status effect.
7. Each of the fixed time periods, in a tick-based game, in which players or characters may perform a set number of actions.
8. (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.”

9. 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.”

   “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.”

10. A whinchat (Saxicola rubetra).
11. A tap or light touch.
12. A slight speck.
13. (uncountable)Ticking.
14. (countable, uncountable)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.”

15. (UK, colloquial, uncountable)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.”

    “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.”

    “He paid his mother-in-law rent and, when the baker or the butcher or the grocer wouldn't let her have any more on tick, he paid the bills.”

16. (obsolete)A goat.

    “Tickhill, Tickham, Ticknock, Tickenhall Drive, Tickenhill Manor, Tickenhurst”

verb

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.”

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, […]”

5. (transitive)To add (a bird) to a list of birds that have been seen (or heard).
6. (intransitive)To go on trust, or credit.
7. (transitive)To give tick; to trust.