tick on

present singular third person ticks on · participle present ticking on · participle past ticked on · past ticked on

1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see tick, on.; to continue ticking.

   The sun sets and the clock ticks on.

   2017, Bryanna Bond, The Color Black, page 23

   2 more examples

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

   2003, Tom Wilkins, The Demise of The Color War Captain, page 121

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

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

2. figurativelyor units of timeTo elapse;

   Seconds ticked on.

   1958, Ashes of Conflict, page 2

   5 more examples

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

   1912, Kate Everest, The Searchlight on the Throne: Reminiscences of an Ex-ambassador, page 132

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

   2011, Lee Goldberg, Mr. Monk on the Couch

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

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

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

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

   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.

   2021 October 12, Jamie Lyall, “Faroe Islands 0-1 Scotland”, in BBC Sport

3. broadlyfigurativelyTo continue; to keep occurring.

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

   2012, Charles Kraszewski, Irresolute Heresiarch: Catholicism, Gnosticism and Paganism in the Poetry of Czesław Miłosz, page 68

   2 more examples

   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.

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

   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.

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