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make tick

verb

Etymology

An allusion to the workings of a clock making it operate with a ticking noise.

Definitions

  1. To cause someone or something to operate the way it does.

    • I honestly don't know the specifics that make him tick, and I wish I did.
    • What makes kinky people tick? Is it the desire for cheap thrills? The idea of flaunting social morés? The restless desire for something different than traditional sexual practices?
    • Most of us find ourselves caught in the middle, ducking for cover and wondering just who these people are and what could possibly make them tick.

  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically

    Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see make, tick.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for make tick. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA