[f. TICK sb.3: cf. Du. tikken to pat, tick, Norw. tikke to touch lightly.]
1. intr. To touch or tap a thing or person lightly; esp. to bestow light touches or pats by way of caressing; to dally; esp. in phr. tick and toy; fig. to trifle. Obs. exc. dial.
1546. J. Heywood, Prov. (1867), 44. Their tickyng might haue tought Any yonge couple their loue tickes to haue wrought.
1550. Latimer, Last Serm. bef. Edw. VI., 108. Stand not ticking and toying at the braunches … but strike at the roote.
1682. Bunyan, Holy War, xii. 268. His sons began to play his pranks, and to be ticking and toying with the daughters of their lord. Ibid. (1684), Adv. Sufferers, Wks. (ed. Offor), II. 738. Though they may but tick and toy with thee at first, their sword may reach thy heart-blood at last.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Tick, v. to toy. Indeed the two are often used together;… two fond sweethearts are sometimes seen ‘ticking and toying.’
† b. trans. To tick up: to lift smartly, whip up.
1586. Warner, Alb. Eng., II. xi. Then ticks he vp her tucked Frocke, nor did Calysto blush.
2. intr. Of a clock, watch, etc.: To make the light quick sound described under TICK sb.3 2.
171, 1746–7. [see TICKING ppl. a.1, vbl. sb.1 2].
1775. Ash, Tick, to make a small quick noise like that of a watch.
1806. J. Train, Poet. Reveries, 94 (Jam.). When she heard the Dead-watch tick.
1812. H. & J. Smith, Rej. Addr., Playhouse Mus. I heard a trowel tick against a brick.
1820. W. Irving, Sketch Bk., I. 249. An old fashioned clock ticked in one corner.
1864. Thackeray, D. Duval, iv. The watch is ticking on the table before me as I write.
b. trans. with various complements: To wear away or out, bring to an end, in ticking; to throw off or deliver by ticking (as a telegraph).
c. 1870. W. Freeland, in Whistlebinkie (1890), II. 322. You [a wagtail] wag and tick the ages out Quicker still and quicker.
1880. Miss Broughton, Sec. Th., II. iv. More days pass;… none bringing … much change in … Gillian’s life. The clocks tick it monotonously away.
1892. Leisure Hour, April, 411/2. Each slow moment as it ticked itself away was a blow to hope.
1902. Strand Mag., Jan., 71/1. The young woman laughed at the answer as it was ticked off to her.
1906. Daily News, 20 April, 6. A telegraphist … ticking out tidings of the affair from its scene.
c. transf. (intr.) To beat, pulse, throb.
1868. Browning, Ring & Bk., I. 37. When hearts beat hard, And brains, high-blooded, ticked two centuries since.
3. trans. To mark (a name, an item in a list, etc.) with a tick; to mark off with a tick, as noted, passed, or done with. Also fig.; colloq. to identify.
1861. Dickens, Gt. Expect., xxxiv. I compared each with the bill, and ticked it off.
1871. L. Stephen, Playgr. Eur. (1894), xiii. 323. One more task ticked off from their memorandum book.
1874. Green, Short Hist., vi. § 6. 335. Fragments of his [Thos. Cromwell’s] papers still show us with what a business-like brevity he ticked off human lives.
1893. G. Allen, Scallywag, I. 17. Ticking him off on her list.
Mod. I ticked him off as soon as I set eyes on him.
b. To mark with small ticks or spots of color. (But cf. TICKED a., TICKING vbl. sb.1 3.)
1910. 19th Cent., May, 915. The white ticked here and there with black.
