Tick, credit, trust. Johnson says it is a corruption of “ticket,”—tradesmen’s bills being formerly written on tickets or cards. On TICK, therefore, is equivalent to on TICKET, or on trust. In use in 1668, and before, as follows:—
“No matter upon landing whether you have money or no—you may swim in twentie of their boats over the river upon TICKET.”—Decker’s Gulls’ Hornbook, 1609.
Ticker, a watch. Formerly cant, now street slang.
Ticket, “that’s the TICKET,” i.e., that’s what is wanted, or what is best. Probable corruption of “that’s etiquette,” or, perhaps, from TICKET, a bill or invoice. This phrase is sometimes extended into “that’s the TICKET for soup,” in allusion to the card given to beggars for immediate relief at soup kitchens. See [TICK].
Tickle, to puzzle; “a reg’lar TICKLER” is a poser.
Tiddlywink, slim, puny; sometimes TILLYWINK.
Tidy, tolerably, or pretty well; “How did you get on to-day?”—“Oh, TIDY.”—Saxon.
Tie, a dead heat. A game of any kind, in which the possibility exists, is said to end in a tie, if the markings are level on each side at the finish. In racing parlance, all level finishes are called dead-heats.
Tied up, given over, finished; also married, in allusion to the hymeneal knot, unless a jocose allusion be intended to the “halter” (altar). See [BUCKLED], term in use among costermongers and street folk generally.
Tiff, a pet, a fit of ill humour.