[Echoic.] An imitation of the ticking of a clock or watch, or a similar sound; hence a child’s name for a clock or watch.
1774. Foote, Cozeners, III. Wks. 1799, II. 190. Marianne, who opened the window? Mar. Little massa, to shew me de tick-tick.
a. 1849. J. C. Mangan, 20 Gold. Y. Ago, viii. Tick-tick, tick-tick!—Not a sound save Time’s.
1864. Glaisher, in Circ. Sc. (c. 1865), I. 1209/2. We heard … the tick-tick of a threshing machine.
1894. H. Drummond, Ascent Man, 214. The child who says … tick-tick for watch, or puff-puff for train, is an authority on the origin of human speech.
So Tick-tick v.; hence Tick-ticking vbl. sb.
1755. B. Bright’s New Jrnl., 6. If … his Mistress … is absent, the Clock tick-ticks very slow.
1897. Daily News, 17 May, 3/3. The tick-ticking of the [telegraph] machines.
