ticker (n.)

1821, "something that ticks," agent noun from tick (v.); slang meaning "heart" first recorded 1930. Ticker tape (1891) is from ticker "telegraphic device for recording stock market quotations, etc." (1883).

Entries linking to ticker

tick (v.)

early 13c., "to touch or pat," perhaps from an Old English verb corresponding to tick (n.2), and perhaps ultimately echoic. Compare Old High German zeckon "to pluck," Dutch tikken "to pat," Norwegian tikke "touch lightly." Meaning "make a ticking sound" is from 1721. Related: Ticked; ticking.

To tick (someone) off is from 1915, originally "to reprimand, scold." The verbal phrase tick off was in use in several senses at the time: as what a telegraph instrument does when it types out a message (1873), as what a clock does in marking the passage of time (1777), to enumerate on one's fingers (1899), and in accountancy, etc., "make a mark beside an item on a sheet with a pencil, etc.," often indicating a sale (by 1881, from tick (n.2) in sense "small mark or dot"). This last might be the direct source of the phrase, perhaps via World War I military bureaucratic sense of being marked off from a list as "dismissed" or "ineligible." Meaning "to annoy" is recorded by 1971.

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Definitions of ticker

ticker (n.)

the hollow muscular organ located behind the sternum and between the lungs; its rhythmic contractions move the blood through the body;

Synonyms: heart / pump

ticker (n.)

a small portable timepiece;

Synonyms: watch

ticker (n.)

a character printer that automatically prints stock quotations on ticker tape;

Synonyms: stock ticker

From wordnet.princeton.edu

Dictionary entries near ticker

Tibet

tibia

tic

tic douloureux

tick

ticker

ticket

ticking

tickle

tickled

ticklish