tick on

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɒn

Verb

tick on (third-person singular simple present ticks on, present participle ticking on, simple past and past participle ticked on)

1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see tick,‎ on.; to continue ticking.
   • 2003, Tom Wilkins, The Demise of The Color War Captain, page 121:

     He shuts off the engine, which ticks on mechanically, cooling down.

   • 2008, Ian Assersohn, First Time Bars - A Choral Singer's Handbook, page 6:

     None of that should affect the beat, or pulse itself, which ticks on regardless.

   • 2017, Bryanna Bond, The Color Black, page 23:

     The sun sets and the clock ticks on.

2. (figurative, of time, or units of time) To elapse;
   • 1912, Kate Everest, The Searchlight on the Throne: Reminiscences of an Ex-ambassador, page 132:

     Slowly the moments ticked on; once he murmured the name of the girl he loved.

   • 1958, Ashes of Conflict, page 2:

     Seconds ticked on.

   • 2011, Lee Goldberg, Mr. Monk on the Couch:

     But the night ticked on and we soon missed Monk's cleaning.

   • 2013, Roy Abraham Varghese, The Missing Link, page 113:

     Or we think of an absolute time which ticks on regardless of events, agents, causes and effects.

   • 2020, Richard Georgiou, One Man on a Bike, page 212:

     The day ticked on and it was soon time to head back.

   • 2021 October 12, Jamie Lyall, “Faroe Islands 0-1 Scotland”, in BBC Sport‎^[1]:

     As time ticked on, with 15 minutes remaining, Billy Gilmour side-footed at Gestsson after breaking into the box from a rare flash of incision.

3. (figurative, by extension) To continue; to keep occurring.
   • 2012, Charles Kraszewski, Irresolute Heresiarch: Catholicism, Gnosticism and Paganism in the Poetry of Czesław Miłosz, page 68:

     The banner flutters and love of the group / stifles the petty unmanly doubt / which ticks on, a liberal superstition.

   • 2014, Katy Butler, Knocking on Heaven's Door: The Path to a Better Way of Death, page 202:

     In that web, my father's pacemaker and our broken human lives ticked on, not in a universe governed by a god whose rules were written on tablets and interpreted by male priests who'd never spent a day changing adult diapers or listening to the moans of a Nancy Cruzan.

   • 2015, Claire Collard, Footpaths on the Sea, page 82:

     With the dumb, inchoate misery of a small child's inability to understand its situation or express bereavement, the relentless question ticked on, and on.