ticking

plural tickings

1. countableuncountableA strong cotton or linen fabric used to cover pillows and mattresses.

   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.

   1897, Rudyard Kipling, “chapter 1”, in Captains Courageous

plural tickings

1. countableuncountableA sound of something that ticks. (For example, the second hand on a clock face.)

   Were they indeed the tickings of a hundred clocks — the fine low inward breathings of Time's children!

   1842, Laman Blanchard, “The Frolics of Time”, in George Cruikshank's Omnibus

   1 more example

   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).

   2018 May, Angela Leighton, Hearing Things: The Work of Sound in Literature, Harvard University Press, page 237

2. countableuncountableAn illusional style of dance where one moves his or her body to the "tic" of the music creating a strobe or animated effect.

1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of tick

   a ticking time bomb

   1 more example

   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).

   2018 May, Angela Leighton, Hearing Things: The Work of Sound in Literature, Harvard University Press, page 237

plural tickings

1. A marking that occurs on some horses, involving white flecks of hair at the flank, and white hairs at the base of the tail, called a skunk tail or rabicano, sometimes referred to as birdcatcher ticks.