Tick vs Nick - What's the difference?
tick | nick |
A relatively quiet but sharp sound generally made repeatedly by moving machinery.
A mark on any scale of measurement; a unit of measurement.
(computing) A jiffy (unit of time defined by basic timer frequency).
(colloquial) A short period of time, particularly a second.
(Australian, NZ, British) a mark () made to indicate agreement, correctness or acknowledgement; checkmark
A lifer (bird seen by a birdwatcher for the first time) that is uninteresting and routine, thus merely a tick mark on a list.
The whinchat; so called from its note.
To make a clicking noise similar to the movement of the hands in an analog clock.
To make a tick mark.
(informal) To work or operate, especially mechanically.
To strike gently; to pat.
* Latimer
(uncountable) Ticking.
A sheet that wraps around a mattress; the cover of a mattress, containing the filling.
(UK, colloquial) Credit, trust.
* 1974 , (GB Edwards), The Book of Ebenezer Le Page , New York 2007, p. 190:
A small cut in a surface.
# A particular point or place considered as marked by a nick; the exact point or critical moment.
#*, II.20:
#* Howell
# (printing, dated) A notch cut crosswise in the shank of a type, to assist a compositor in placing it properly in the stick, and in distribution.
Meanings connoting something small.
# (cricket) A small deflection of the ball off the edge of the bat, often going to the wicket-keeper for a catch.
# (real tennis) The point where the wall of the court meets the floor.
# (genetics) One of the single-stranded DNA segments produced during nick translation.
(archaic) A nixie, or water-sprite.
* 1879 , Viktor Rydberg, The Magic of the Middle Ages (p.201)
*:imps, giants, trolls, forest-spirits, elves and hobgoblins in and on the earth; nicks , river-sprites in the water, fiends in the air, and salamanders in the fire.
(UK, slang) In the expressions in bad nick'' and ''in good nick : condition.
* '>citation
(British, slang) A police station or prison.
To make a nick or notch in; to cut or scratch in a minor way.
# To make a cross cut or cuts on the underside of (the tail of a horse, in order to make the animal carry it higher).
# To mar; to deface; to make ragged, as by cutting nicks or notches in.
#* Prior
#* Shakespeare
To suit or fit into, as by a correspondence of nicks; to tally with.
* Camden
# To hit at, or in, the nick; to touch rightly; to strike at the precise point or time.
#* L'Estrange
# To throw or turn up (a number when playing dice); to hit upon.
#* {{quote-book, year=1773
, author=Oliver Goldsmith
, title=She Stoops to Conquer
, text=My old luck: I never nicked seven that I did not throw ames ace three times following.}}
# (cricket) to hit the ball with the edge of the bat and produce a fine deflection
(obsolete) To nickname; to style.
* Ford
(slang) To steal.
(transitive, British, slang) To arrest.
As nouns the difference between tick and nick
is that tick is a tiny woodland arachnid of the suborder Ixodida while nick is a small cut in a surface.As verbs the difference between tick and nick
is that tick is to make a clicking noise similar to the movement of the hands in an analog clock while nick is to make a nick or notch in; to cut or scratch in a minor way.As a proper noun Nick is
a diminutive of the male given name Nicholas.tick
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) , from (etyl), compare (etyl) (m), (etyl) (m).Derived terms
* tick bean * tick trefoilEtymology 2
From (etyl)Noun
(en noun)- The steady tick of the clock provided a comforting background for the conversation.
- At midday, the long bond is up a tick .
- I'll be back in a tick .
- Indicate that you are willing to receive marketing material by putting a tick in the box
Derived terms
* full as a tick * tick bite * ticker * ticking * tick off * tick over * tick-tack * tick-tockVerb
(en verb)- He took the computer apart to see how it ticked .
- I wonder what makes her tick .
- Stand not ticking and toying at the branches.
Derived terms
* tick all the boxesEtymology 3
From (etyl) (m), probably from (etyl), from (etyl)Noun
Synonyms
* tickingDerived terms
* tickingEtymology 4
From (m)Noun
(en noun)- He paid his mother-in-law rent and, when the baker or the butcher or the grocer wouldn't let her have any more on tick , he paid the bills.
nick
English
(wikipedia nick)Noun
(en noun)- in the nick of time
- Truely he flies when he is even upon the nicke , and naturally hasteneth to escape it, as from a step whereon he cannot stay or containe himselfe, and feareth to sinke into it.
- to cut it off in the very nick
- a user's reserved nick on an IRC network
- The car I bought was cheap and in good nick .
- He was arrested and taken down to Sun Hill nick [police station] to be charged.
- He's just been released from Shadwell nick [prison] after doing ten years for attempted murder.
Derived terms
* in the nick of timeVerb
(en verb)- I nicked myself while I was shaving.
- And thence proceed to nicking sashes.
- The itch of his affection should not then / Have nicked his captainship.
- Words nicking and resembling one another are applicable to different significations.
- The just season of doing things must be nicked , and all accidents improved.
- For Warbeck, as you nick him, came to me.
- Someone's nicked my bike!
- The police nicked him climbing over the fence of the house he'd broken into.