Also 6 Sc. tik tak, 7 tic-tack, tick(e)-tacke, 7–9 tic-tac. [Echoic: so Du., Norw. tiktak, Sw., Da., Ger. tick-tack, F. tic-tac. In sense 2 an adaptation or kind of translation of F. trictrac, a similar echoic word: see TRIC-TRAC.]
1. An imitation of a reduplicated or alternating ticking sound, esp. that made by a clock (see TICK sb.3 2); also that of the firing of small artillery. (Used as adv. or interj., and hence as sb. to denote the sound.)
1549. Compl. Scot., vi. 42. Than the smal artailȝe cryit, tik tak, tik tak, tik tak, tik tak.
17[?]. in Ritson’s Gamm. Gurton’s Garl. (1783), 53. Here a nail, there a nail, Tick, tack, too.
1840. P. Parley’s Ann., 54. I am quite tired of your [a clock’s] tick tack.
1858. O. W. Holmes, Aut. Breakf.-t., viii. Our brains are seventy-year clocks…. Tic-tac! tic-tac! go the wheels of thought.
1909. Daily Chron., 12 June, 5/1. A Gatling gun … played upon the infantry…; one heard the ‘tick-tack,’ ‘tick-tack’ of the spitting fire.
b. In auscultation, The sound of the heart-beat. (Usually in Fr. form tic-tac.)
1853. Markham, Skoda’s Auscult., 175. The normal sounds of the heart are generally indicated by the expression ‘tic-tac.’… This tic-tac I call the sounds (Töne) of the heart…. By murmurs (Geräusche) I understand the abnormal sounds … blowing, sawing, rasping, etc. Ibid., 207. I have occasionally heard two sounds … in the place of the proper second sound: thus, instead of the ordinary ‘tic-tac,’ a ‘tic-tac-tac.’
1860. J. M. Carnochan, Operat. Surg., 136 (Cent. Dict.). The normal tick-tack of the heart beat with healthy precision.
† 2. An old variety of backgammon, played on a board with holes along the edge, in which pegs were placed for scoring. Also fig. Obs. (Also called TRIC-TRAC, in F. trictrac.)
1558. Forrest, Grysilde Sec., I. xi. (Roxb.), 28. To pastyme at Tables, Tick-tacke or Gleeke.
1598. B. Jonson, Ev. Man in Hum., III. iii.
c. 1618. Moryson, Itin., IV. IV. vi. (1903), 396. They play much at Tables, Commonly Tick Tack and lurch, but never at Irish.
1740. trans. De Mouhy’s Fort. Country Maid (1741), II. 188. Sometimes we plaid at Tick-tack.
3. attrib. † a. Belonging, or addicted, to the game of tick-tack (obs.). b. slang. Applied to a system of ‘telegraphy’ or signalling used by bookmakers at race-meetings, and hence to the men who practise this (cf. TICKER3 b).
1583. Babington, Commandm., ii. (1590), 104. If hee bee a drunken ale-stake, a ticktack tauerner.
1665. in Boston (Mass.) Transcript, 17 Sept. (1910), II. 8/1. Two tick tack tables. Ibid. A tick tack board with the pieces.
1899. Daily News, 15 March, 5/5. Another class who are persecuted most absurdly, as it seems to me, are the ‘tick tack’ men.
1905. Daily Chron., 1 Feb., 3/6. A prisoner puzzled the Kingston Bench by describing himself as ‘a racecourse telegraphist.’… A detective explained that the man practised what is known as ‘tick-tack telegraphy’—signalling by means of the arms to outside bookmakers.
Hence Tick-tacker, one who practises tick-tack telegraphy; Tick-tacking ppl. a., making an alternating ticking sound; Tick-tack-too, also called tit-tat-toe, tip-tap-toe, a children’s game played on a slate, consisting in trying with the eyes shut to bring the pencil down on one of the numbers of a set, the number hit being scored.
1842. Father Oswald, xii. 117. The death-watch … is a little tick-tacking noise.
a. 1847. Eliza Cook, Old Mill-stream, xxi. Thy pouring cascade, and the tic-tac-ing mill.
1884. Mag. of Art, Feb., 135/2. He saw those children playing tic-tac-toe.
1899. Crockett, Anna Mark, xii. Playing at quoits, tops, marbles, tic-tac-toe, jacks, knuckle-bones.
1912. Daily News, 28 March, 4. Bookies, tipsters, tick-tackers, runners, welshers, backers, and all the great army who go racing.
