ticking
/ˈtɪkɪŋ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.46 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A sound of something that ticks. (For example, the second hand on a clock face.)
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "Harvey saw with disgust that there were no sheets on his bed-place. He was lying on a piece of dingy ticking full of lumps and nubbles."
- "Were they indeed the tickings of a hundred clocks — the fine low inward breathings of Time's children!"
- "The combination of “monotony” and “variety,” which keeps the writer in a trance-like state between sleep and wake, is then characterized by the figure of a ticking watch: “If certain sensitive persons listen persistently to the ticking of a watch [...] they fall into the hypnotic trance; and rhythm is but the ticking of a watch made softer, that one must needs listen, and various, that one may not be swept beyond memory or grow weary of listening” (1961: 159)."
- "a ticking time bomb"
Etymology
Usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
clock is ticking
the clock is ticking
ticking bomb
ticking time bomb
tick-tock
Ticking in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)
Frequently Paired Words
tick-tock
Ticking in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)