ticking

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)A 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.”

2. (countable, uncountable)A 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!”

   “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).”

3. (countable, uncountable)An illusional style of dance where one moves his or her body to the "tic" of the music creating a strobe or animated effect.
4. 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.

verb

1. (form-of, gerund, participle, present)present participle and gerund of tick

   “a ticking time bomb”

   “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).”