Green’s Dictionary of Slang

the obtaining of goods on credit .

1748

‘Oxford Ale’ in Wharton Oxford Sausage (1814) 57: Hail, ticking! surest guardian of distress! Beneath thy shelter pennyless I quaff The cheerful cup.

on credit.

2009

R. Milward Ten Storey Love Song 6: [K]neecapping a youngster who owed £70 ticky.

see separate entry.

see tickman n.

to buy on credit.

1923

J. Manchon Le Slang.

to fall into debt; to run up credit.

1672		Wycherley Love in Wood III i: A poor wretch that goes on tick for the paper he writes his lampoons on!
1788		G.A. Stevens Adventures of a Speculist II 293: He had been obliged to go a-tick for fifty pounds.
1832		in Egan Bk of Sports 105: But tho’ our motto’s T.Y.C. [i.e. Thames Yacht Club], we never go on tic.
1866		Letters by an Odd Boy 25: You would not have blabbed it [...] when Traddles went tick for tarts.
1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 4 Dec. 4/4: I got elected to the House, / And then I went on ‘tick’.
1900		Boy’s Own Paper 17 Nov. 100: Lots of fellows had gone on tick [...] and paid up after the holidays.
1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 1228/2: 1640 [...] –ca. 1800.

on credit; also attrib.

a.1650		‘An Oxford Scholar’ in Wardroper (1969) 198: We must upon tick be drunk.
1668		Dryden An Evening’s Love Act III: Play on tick, and lose the Indies, I’ll discharge it all to-morrow.
1672		J. Phillips Maronides (1678) VI 63: While every Tom, and every Dick, / Struts in his Ribbons upon Tick.
1674		Rochester ‘Timon’ in Works (1999) 258: Hast thou lost deep to needy Rogues on Tick / Who ne’er could pay, and must be paid next Week?
1683		J. Oldham ‘A Satyr’ Poems 174: Reduc’d to want, he in due time fell sick, Was fain to die, and be interr’d on tick.
1697		Cibber Woman’s Wit I i: Let him turn Beau, and live upon Tick.
1706		R. Estcourt Fair Example II ii: I’ll lock up my Money; and so let her e’en play upon Tick if she will.
1723		C. Walker Authentick Memoirs of Sally Salisbury 106: Light-finger’d Sally beat her heartily, and demolish’d a new Suit of Cloaths just procur’d upon Tick.
1728		Defoe Street Robberies Considered 55: I have known some Men of Honour that have lost great Sums upon Tick.
1737		W. Wilkes ‘Humours of the Black Dog’ in A. Carpenter Verse in Eng. in 18C Ireland (1998) 261: I want a little Chink: / For upon Tick I never draw my Drink.
1753		Thief-Catcher 16: There is another Class of dangerous Rogues, who are known by the Name of Tickers [...] The Trade of this Tribe is to buy Horses, Oxen [...] Cloth, Hops, Malt, Corn, and all other Commodities upon Tick or Credit.
1777		Thrale Thraliana i Aug.-Sept. 127: [O]ne of the first showy Houses they built was a Tavern for the Reception of the Officers—on which was written—in imitation of a favourite Tavern in London—Pontack. I soon could draw all the Customers from this House said my Father—how so? why by setting up one over against it and writing ’pon tick.
1797		M. Robinson Walsingham IV (1805) 89: I can’t give you any money this winter; I must deal all upon tick.
1809		B.H. Malkin (trans.) Adventures of Gil Blas (1822) I 250: He takes up goods of me, on tick indeed; but these great men are good pay in the long run.
1819		P. Egan Key to the Picture of the Fancy going to a Fight 9: Very little [betting] is done upon tick, as staking is now the most preferable and decisive mode of betting.
1829		Vidocq Memoirs (trans. W. McGinn) III 87: It is no go to have a whole supper on tick.
1831		Mr Mathews’ Comic Annual 23: Obliged to go on tick for a pen’orth of cat’s meat the other day.
1834		Ely’s Hawk & Buzzard (NY) 15 Mar. 3/3: Reform — Go no more on tick.
1835		‘Frisky Poll Of Broker’s Alley’ in Knowing Chaunter 19: So he sarv’d out goods upon the tick.
1841		‘F.L.G.’ Swell’s Night Guide (K4) 220: On the Mallett Goods on Tick.
1850		W.C. Hall ‘Mike Hooter’s Bar Story’ Spirit of the Times 26 Jan. (N.Y.) 581: The fellers down in Mechanicsburg wouldn’t sell on ‘tick’.
1858		F.W. Farrar Eric II 217: All serene; give us two bottles of beer — on tick, you know.
1865		diary W. Hilleary in A Webfoot Volunteer (1965) 19 May 73: A few of us went to town [...] & procured some bread ‘on tick.’.
1879		London Life 7 JUne 4/1: lt is not true, as I am told, that Spurgeon’s clock was got on tick.
1879		Bismarck Trib. (ND) 29 Mar. 5/1: An individual was taken in for the night, the head of the establishment not being able to withstand his piteous appeals for a night’s lodging on tick.
1885		C.A. Siringo Texas Cow Boy (1950) 76: I built it from an old torn down house that I bought [...] on ‘tick’ for I was then financially ‘busted.’.
1889		H. Smart Long Odds I 73: ‘Buy the colt he can’t, unless they are willing to sell on tick, which is not at all likely’.
1896		Regiment 4 July 208/3: I'm going to strike again. That’s more than the regiment watch does. I got mine on tick.
1899–1900		H. Lawson ‘A Double Buggy at Lahey’s Creek’ in Roderick (1972) 598: James [...] got his powder and shot and caps there on tick when he was short of money.
1903		A. Binstead Pitcher in Paradise 166: I endeavoured to persuade a jockey to ride it [i.e. a horse] on tick.
1908		E. Dyson ‘Two Battlers and a Bear’ in Lone Hand (Sydney) Feb. 376/1: He ate on tick, and lodged on tick, and drank on credit.
1911		J. Lomax Cowboy Songs 266: Or spend that derned old well machine / And all he can get on tick.
1925		S. O’Casey Juno and the Paycock Act I: What’ll we do if he refuses to gives us any more on tick?
1935		M. Harrison Spring in Tartarus 287: The printing I’ve had done on tick.
1941		G. Kersh They Die with Their Boots Clean 14: He took a little shop, starting with a few packets of stuff on tick.
1953		L. Doyle Back to Ballygullion 149: If he ever gave anybody stuff on tick he wanted the whole history of them from the Flood down.
1958		A. Sillitoe Sat. Night and Sun. Morning 38: When Seaton’s face grew black for lack of fags she had trotted around to various shops asking for some on tick till Thursday.
1981		T. Wilkinson Down and Out 112: It’s all right if you’ve got fifteen pounds [...] working on tick, but if you need a fuckin’ sub, what’s the point?
1992		in R. Graef Living Dangerously 97: My friend used to get ounces on tic.
1996		J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 63: [A]n occasional on-tick customer of Vinegar Veronica’s.
1997		N. Barlay Curvy Lovebox 66: Now you want this gear on tick.
2009		R. Milward Ten Storey Love Song 2: Johnnie from upstairs sorted him two blotters and two ecstasies on tick.

debtors’ prison.

to set up a line of credit, to get into debt.

1642		British Museum Additional Mss 37999.lf.66: They would haue [...] run on tick with Piggin for inke and songs, rather than haue lost the show of your presence [OED].
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: [...] to run a tick, to go on the Score, or a trust.
1708		Humours of a Coffee-House 9 Jan. 85: Men of thy Principles seldom venture out their Money, except to the Ale-House or Tavern, to wipe off the Chalk, and clear Old Scores, and then run fresh upon Tick again.
1712		J. Arbuthnot Hist. of John Bull 74: Paying ready money that the maids might not run tick at the market.
1725		New Canting Dict. n.p.: To run on Tick; To go on the Score, or Trust.
1733		Fielding Don Quixote III i: Besides other Articles she ran in tick Twenty Shillings for Thunder and Lightning.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. 1725].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1900		Boy’s Own Paper 10 Nov. 84: He was sure the Grandpater would be very angry if he knew I’d been running up a tick.
1913		Western Mail 15 Feb. 12/5: ‘There is a duty on the part of a husband to see that his wife does not run on ‘tick’.

(W.I.) to beg from.

1956

cited in Cassidy & LePage Dict. Jam. Eng. (1980).