tick, v.² — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

tick v.²

[image of a clock which ticks mindlessly on]

(US campus)

1. to talk in class without having prepared the assignment.

1989

P. Munro Sl. U. 33: be ticking to talk in class without being prepared.

2. to talk nonsense.

1989

P. Munro Sl. U. 33: be ticking [...] to B.S. in class.

make one tick (v.)

to stimulate, to motivate one.

1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 112: She studied him to see just what made him tick.
1959		A. Sillitoe ‘Noah’s Ark’ Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner (1960) 87: A mechanical gaudily dressed pied piper [...] which he would follow and one day scrag to see what made it tick.
1983		S. Gee Never in My Lifetime in Best Radio Plays (1984) 80: What makes girls like that tick, whores like that?
1985		B. Humphries Traveller’s Tool 7: I learned what makes a pommy tick.
1992		P. Earley Hot House 369: ‘[Y]ou got to understand what makes me tick, what I feel, and why I think like I do’.