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)

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.
(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.
(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.