Also tic-toc. [Echoic.] An imitation of the ticking of a clock, esp. the slow ticking of a large clock; also of the sound of a double knock, or of resounding footsteps.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xxiii. They were both so silent that the tick-tock of the … clock on the mantelpiece became quite rudely audible.
1878. Browning, Poets Croisic, cxxvii. Bold tic-toc Announces there’s a giant at the door.
1906. R. Whiteing, Ring in New, 197. The tic-toc of the high heels was insistent in the passages.
