tick-tick
(ˈtɪkˌtɪk)
[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. n.
| 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. |