tick 
tick 4 (tik), H. [Abbr. of ticket.] 1. Credit; 
trust : as, to buy on tick. 
I confess my tide is not good, and I never desire to game 
for more than I have about me. 
Sedley, The Mulberry Garden (1668). (Hares.) 
A poor Wretch that goes on tick for the paper he writes 
his Lampoons on, and the very Ale and Coffee that inspires 
him, as they say. Wye.herley, Love in a Wood, iil. 1. 
2. A score, account, or reckoning. 
Then the bills came down upon me. I tell you there 
are some of my college ticks ain't paid now. 
Thackeray, Philip, xxxviii. 
[Colloq. in both uses.] 
tick 4 (tik), v. i. [< tick*, M.] 1 . To buy on tick 
or credit ; live on credit. 
Jmjn. The best wits of the town are but cullies them- 
selves. 
Sir Sim. To whom ? . . . 
Joyn. To tailors and vintners, but especially to French 
houses. 
Sir Sim. But Dapperwit is a cully to none of them ; for 
he ticks. Wycherley, Love in a Wood, 1. 1. 
2. To give tick or credit; trust one for goods 
supplied, etc. 
The money went to the lawyers ; counsel won't tick. 
Arbuthnot, Hist. John Bull, iii. 8. 
[Colloq. in both uses.] 
ticks 
(tik), n. [< OF. tic, a disease of horses: 
see tic 1 .'] In a horse, the malady or vice now 
called cribbing. 
tick 6 (tik), n. [Said to be imitative.] The 
whinehat. [Prov. Eng.] 
tick-bean (tik'ben), . A variety of the common 
European bean, Vicia Faba, nearly the same as 
the variety known as horse-bean. 
tick-eater (tik'e"ter), . A bird of the genus 
Crotophaga; an ani. See cut under ani. 
ticked (ti'kt), p. a. [< tick 1 + -erf 2 .] Speckled; 
slightly mottled. 
When a plain color is speckled with small white marks, 
the dog is said to be ticked. 
Dogs of Great Britain and A merica, p. 45. 
ticken (tik'en), w. [A corruption of ticking 2 ."] 
Same as ticking' 2 . Imp. Diet. 
ticker 1 (tik'er)', n. [< tick! + -or 1 .'] Something 
which ticks, or makes a slight repeated sound. 
Specifically (a) A watch. [Slang.] 
"If you don't take fogies and ticken ... If you 
don't take pocket-hankechers and watches," said the 
Dodger, reducing his conversation to the level of Oliver's 
capacity, " some other cove will." 
Dickens, Oliver Twist, xviii. 
(b) A telegraphic instrument, especially a stock indicator 
(which see, under indicator). [Colloq.] 
ticker 2 ! (tik'er), n. [< tick& + -eel.] A crib- 
bing horse. Lawrence, Treatise on Horses (ed. 
1802), p. 218. 
ticker-in (tik'er-in'), . In cotton-manuf., the 
first roller-card, which draws in single fila- 
ments from the feed-rollers. 
ticket (tik'et), n. [< ME. ticket,< OF. "estiquet, 
etiquet, m., estiquette, etiquette, f., a bill, note, 
label, ticket, esp. a bill stuck up on a gate or 
wall as a public notice, F. etiquette, f., a label, 
ticket, etiquette, < MHG. G. stecken, stick : see 
stick%. Cf. etiquette.'} 1. A written or printed 
card or slip of paper affixed to something to in- 
dicate its nature, contents, or price, or to give 
other notice or information; a label. 
He [Samuel Collins] constantly read his lectures twice a 
week for above forty years, giving notice of the time to 
his auditors in a ticket on the school doors. 
Fuller, Worthies, Buckinghamshire, I. 209. 
2f. A bill or account stuck up ; a score ; hence, 
to take goods on or upon ticket, to buy on credit. 
Now contracted to tick. See tick&, n, 
Come, neighbours, upon this good news let 's chop up 
to my host Snego's ; he'll be glad to hear of it too. I am 
resolved to build no more sconces, but to pay my old 
tickets. Randolph, Hey for Honesty, ii. 6. 
No matter whether . . . you have money or no; you 
may swim in twenty of their boats over the river upon 
ticket: Marry; when silver conies in, remember to pay 
treble their fare. Dekker, Gull's Hornbook, p. 145. 
3. A slip of paper or cardboard on which a 
memorandum, notice, order, acknowledgment, 
or the like is written or printed ; a card or slip 
of paper serving as a token or evidence of a 
right or of a debt: as, a theater-ticfret; a rail- 
vt ay-ticket ; a lottery-ticket ; a pstwn-ticket. The 
use of tickets is chiefly in contracts of a class such as are 
made in large numbers, with many persons, but all on 
the same terms. There has been much discussion as to 
whether a ticket is a contract. Rightly viewed, it is the 
token of a contract, and may or may not embody in the 
inscription terms of the contract ; but when it does so. 
other terms may be implied by law, or expressly agreed 
on outside of its contents by the parties the object of 
stating upon the ticket anything more than what is neces- 
sary to its use as a token being usually, if not always 
merely to restrict some liability which the law would 
otherwise imply, not to embody the whole agreement. 
6328 
The porter . . . there gave me a little ticket under his 
hand as a kind of warrant for mine entertainement in 
mine lime. Coryat, Crudities, I. 57. 
They send the Beadle with a List of such Friends and 
Relations as they have a Mind to invite [to the funeral] ; 
and sometimes they have printed Tickets, which they leave 
at their Houses. 
Quoted in Ashton's Social Life in Reign of Queen Anne, 
[I. 55. 
4t. A visiting-card. 
" A ticket? " repeated Cecilia. " Does Lady Nyland only 
admit her company with tickets?" "O Lord I " cried Miss 
Larolles, laughing immoderately. " Don't you know what 
I mean? Why, a ticket is only a visiting-card with a name 
upon it; but we all call them tickets now." 
Miss Burney, Cecilia, i. 3. 
Poor dear Mrs. Jones . . . still calls on the ladies of 
your family, and slips her husband's ticket upon the hall 
table. Thackeray, Philip, xiii. 
5. A list of candidates nominated or put for- 
ward by a party, faction, etc., for election : as, 
the Democratic ticket; the Prohibition ticket; 
the regular and opposition tickets in the elec- 
tions of a club. 6. In certain mining districts 
of England and Wales, a tender from a smelter 
for a lot of ore offered by a miner, in accor- 
dance with the peculiar method of sale called 
ticketing or by ticket. See the quotation. 
In Cornwall, Cardiganshire, and partly in Denbighshire, 
the Isle of Man, and elsewhere, each Mine sends samples 
of its ore to the Smelters in various localities, along 
with a notice to the effect that tenders or tickets will be 
received, up to a certain day, on which they will be 
opened and the highest offer accepted. 
Percy, Metallurgy of Lead, p. 496. 
Allotment ticket. See allotment note, under allotment. 
Benefit ticket. See benefit. Commutation ticket. 
See cmnnmtatiun-ticket. Coupon ticket. See coupon. 
General ticket, in elections to representative bodies, a 
list of candidates so composed as to offer to the voters of 
a large political division (as a State) a number of candi- 
dates for common membership equal to the entire repre- 
sentation to which such division is entitled ; a ticket not 
arranged with a view to the representation of territorial 
subdivisions by a single representative each. 
There is another cause that has greatly contributed to 
place the control of the presidential elections in the 
hands of those who hold or seek office. I allude to what 
is called the general ticket system ; which has become, 
with the exception of a single state, the universal mode 
of appointing electors to choose the President and Vice- 
President. Calhoua, Works, I. 370. 
Limited ticket, in railroad usage, a ticket not giving the 
holder all the privileges given by an ordinary ticket, as, 
for instance, one limited to a trip commenced on a speci- 
fied day or by a particular train, or excluding the right 
to break the journey by stopping on the way and taking a 
later train. Mileage ticket, a ticket issued by a carrier 
of passengers, entitling the holder to be carried a given 
number of miles. Scratched ticket, a voting-ticket or 
ballot on which some change has been made by erasure or 
substitution. Season ticket, a ticket or pass entitling 
the holder to certain privileges for the season, or for a 
specified period : as, a season ticket entitling one to travel 
at pleasure between specified places on a line of railway ; 
a season ticket to an art-gallery or place of amusement 
Split ticket, in politics, a ticket or ballot made up of 
the names of candidates from two or more tickets or par- 
ties. Straight ticket, in politics, a ticket bearing the 
names of the regular nominees of a party or faction, and 
no other. The ticket, the right or correct thing. [Col- 
loq. or slang.] 
She 's very handsome and she 'a very finely dressed, only 
somehow she 's not she 's not the ticket, you see. 
Thackeray, Newcomes, vii. 
That 's about the ticket in this country. 
Trollope, Orley Farm, Ixvii. 
Through ticket. See through^. Ticket of leave, a 
permit issued sometimes in Great Britain and her colonies 
to a prisoner or convict who has served a part of his time 
and who may be intrusted with his liberty under certain 
restrictions, such as reporting to the police at certain 
specified intervals, sleeping in the place given to the 
police as his abode, leading an honest life, etc. 
When the convicts were sent out to the colony they 
received each in turn, after a certain period of penal pro- 
bation, a conditional freedom : in other words, a ticket of 
leave. J. McCarthy, Hist. Own Times, xxxi. 
Ticket-of-leave man, a convict who has received a ticket 
of leave. To run ahead of the (or one's) ticket, in 
U. S. politics, to receive a larger vote than the average 
vote polled by one's associates on the same electoral ticket. 
Similarly, to run behind the ticket is to receive less than 
such an average vote. 
ticket (tik'et), v. t. [< ticket, .] 1. To put a 
ticket or label on; distinguish by affixing a 
ticket; label. 
Writing was to him little more than an auxiliary to 
natural history ; a way of ticketing specimens, not of ex- 
pressing thoughts. Mrs. Gaskell, Mary Barton, xxxiii. 
I am so far from hating the Dodsons myself that I am 
rather aghast to find them ticketed with such very ugly 
adjectives. George KIM, in Cross, II. x. 
For myself it matters little whether I be ticketed as a 
High, a Low, or a Broad Churchman. 
Nineteenth Century, XXVI. 825. 
2. To furnish with a ticket: as, to ticket a pas- 
senger to California. [Colloq., U. S.] 
ticket-day (tik'et-da), . The day before the 
settling or paying day on the stock-exchange, 
when the tickets containing the names of the 
tickle 
actual purchasers are given in by one stock- 
broker to another. 
ticket-holder (tik'et-hoFder), n. 1. A device 
for attaching a tag, card, etc., to a trunk, box, 
or parcel. 2. In a railway sleeping-car, a 
metal clip or spring fastened to the side of a 
berth, to hold the tickets of the occupant. 3. 
A device for attaching a railroad-ticket to the 
hat or coat of a passenger to keep it in view. 
4. One who holds a ticket, as for admission 
to an exhibition or for other privilege. 
ticketing (tik'et-ing), n. [Verbal n. of ticket, 
f.] iTThe act or practice of affixing tickets 
to anything, or of giving tickets for it: as, the 
ticketing of goods or of passengers. 2. The 
selling of ore by ticket. See ticket, n., 6. 
ticket-night (tik'et-nlt), it. A benefit at a 
theater or other place of public entertainment 
the proceeds of which are divided among sev- 
eral beneficiaries, each of whom receives an 
amount equal in value to the tickets individu- 
ally sold, less an equal share of the incidental 
expenses. 
ticket-porter (tik'et-por"ter), n. A licensed 
porter who wears a badge or ticket, by which 
he may be identified. [Great Britain.] 
ticket-punch (tik'et-punch), n. A hand-punch 
for stamping or canceling railroad, theater, or 
other tickets. The most common form cuts a hole 
in the ticket,. the shape of the hole indicating a number, 
letter, or some other device. In some forms the blank 
stamped out of the ticket is retained in a receptacle at- 
tached to the punch, an alarm-bell is rung, or a register- 
ing device is set in motion to record the number of tickets 
punched. 
ticket-writer (tik'et-ri'ter), n. One who writes 
or paints show-cards for shop-windows, etc. 
tick-hole (tik'hol), n. A drusy cavity or empty 
space in a lode: same as vtig in Cornwall. 
Farey. [Derbyshire, Eng.] 
ticking 1 (tik'ing), . [Verbal n. of tick 1 , t-.] 
The act of making ticks, or slight repeated 
sounds; the sounds themselves: as, the ticking 
of the clock. 
ticking 2 (tik'ing), n. [< ticks + -ing 1 .'] A 
strong material of linen or cotton, basket-wo- 
ven, and usually in stripes of blue or pink with 
white. It is used especially for bedticks, whence the 
name, and also for awnings and similar purposes, and in 
recent times as a foundation for embroidery, the stripes 
facilitating the working of certain designs. Also ticken. 
Maggie had on a simple brown calico dress and an apron 
of blue ticking. 0. W. Cable, Stories of Louisiana, ii. 
ticking-work (tik'ing-werk), n. A kind of em- 
broidery done upon ticking as a background, 
the stripes of the material being utilized in the 
design. 
tickle (tik'l), v. ; pret. and pp. tickled, ppr. tick- 
ling. [Early mod. E. also tide; < ME. tiklen, 
tikelen, freq. of tikken, E. tick, touch lightly: 
see tick 1 . Cf. G. dial, zicklen, excite, stir up. 
Cf. tickle, a. Not, as often supposed, a trans- 
posed form of kittle' 1 ."] I. trans. 1. To tease 
with repeated light touches in some sensi- 
tive part, so as to excite the nerves, thereby 
producing a peculiar thrilling sensation which 
commonly results in spasmodic laughter, or, if 
too long continued, in a convulsion; titillate. 
If you tickle us do we not laugh ? 
Shak., M. of V., Hi. 1. 68. 
Their Stings are not strong enough to enter a Man's 
Skin ; but, if disturbed, they will fly at one as furiously as 
the great Bees, and will tickle, but cannot hurt you. 
Dampier, Voyages, II. ii. 112. 
We were informed of a very particular manner of catch- 
ing them by encompassing them with a net, and men go 
into the water, tickle them on the belly, and BO get them 
ashoar. Pococke, Description of the East, II. ii. 252. 
He is playful so out of season that he reminds me of a 
young lady I saw at Sta. Maria Novella, who at one mo- 
ment crossed herself, and at the next tickled her compan- 
ion. Landor, Imag. Conv., Southey and Landor, ii. 
2. To touch, affect, or excite agreeably; grati- 
fy; please or amuse by gentle appeals to one's 
imagination, sense of humor, vanity, or the like. 
Whereat her Maiestie laughed as she had bene tickled, 
and all the rest of the company, although very graciously 
(as her manner is) she gaue him great thankes. 
Puttenham, Arte of Eng. Poesie, p. 217. 
The first view did even . . . tickle my senses with in- 
ward joy. Coryat, Crudities, I. 110. 
How dost like him? art not rapt, art not tickled now? 
B. Jonson, Poetaster, iii. 1. 
Pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw. 
Pope, Essay on Man, ii. 276. 
My father was hugely tickled with the subtleties of these 
learned discourses. Sterne, Tristram Shandy, iv. 31. 
The notion of the lion conchant with his currant eyes 
being hoistea up to the place of honor on a mantle-piece 
tickleil my hysterical fancy. Mrs. Oaskrll, I'ranford, xiv. 
His spice is of so keen a flavor that it tickles the coars- 
est palate. W hippie, Ess. and Rev., I. 13. 
