Dictionary
Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.
ticking en · NOUN · etymology 1
Pronunciation
Etymology
From tick (“sheet, cover”) + -ing (“material, collection”).
Meanings
-
(countable, uncountable) A strong cotton or linen fabric used to cover pillows and mattresses.
Harvey saw with disgust that there were no sheets on his bed-place. He was lying on a piece of dingy ticking full of lumps and nubbles.
1897, Rudyard Kipling, “chapter 1”, in Captains Courageous:
Forms
Translations (7)
arc אַבּוּרְגְּנָא (a strong cotton or linen fabric) · it vergatino (a strong cotton or linen fabric) · es terliz (a strong cotton or linen fabric) · it traliccio (a strong cotton or linen fabric) · ru тик (a strong cotton or linen fabric) · el στρωματσόπανο (a strong cotton or linen fabric) · ga éadach tochta (a strong cotton or linen fabric)
ticking en · NOUN · etymology 2
Pronunciation
Etymology
Meanings
-
(countable, uncountable) A sound of something that ticks. (For example, the second hand on a clock face.)
The combination of “monotony” and “variety,” which keeps the writer in a trance-like state between sleep and wake, is then characterized by the figure of a ticking watch: “If certain sensitive persons listen persistently to the ticking of a watch [...] they fall into the hypnotic trance; and rhythm is but the ticking of a watch made softer, that one must needs listen, and various, that one may not be swept beyond memory or grow weary of listening” (1961: 159).
2018 May, Angela Leighton, Hearing Things: The Work of Sound in Literature, Harvard University Press, page 237:Were they indeed the tickings of a hundred clocks — the fine low inward breathings of Time's children!
1842, Laman Blanchard, “The Frolics of Time”, in George Cruikshank's Omnibus:
-
(countable, uncountable) An illusional style of dance where one moves his or her body to the "tic" of the music creating a strobe or animated effect.
Forms
ticking en · VERB · etymology 2
Pronunciation
Etymology
Meanings
-
(form-of, gerund, participle, present) present participle and gerund of tick
The combination of “monotony” and “variety,” which keeps the writer in a trance-like state between sleep and wake, is then characterized by the figure of a ticking watch: “If certain sensitive persons listen persistently to the ticking of a watch [...] they fall into the hypnotic trance; and rhythm is but the ticking of a watch made softer, that one must needs listen, and various, that one may not be swept beyond memory or grow weary of listening” (1961: 159).
2018 May, Angela Leighton, Hearing Things: The Work of Sound in Literature, Harvard University Press, page 237:a ticking time bomb
Deriveds
the clock is ticking · clock is ticking · ticking time bomb · nonticking · ticking bomb
Relateds
tick-tock
ticking en · NOUN · etymology 3
Pronunciation
Etymology
From tick (“tick mark”) + -ing (“having the property”).
Meanings
-
A marking that occurs on some horses, involving white flecks of hair at the flank, and white hairs at the base of the tail, called a skunk tail or rabicano, sometimes referred to as birdcatcher ticks.
Forms
Relateds
Ticking in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)