Tic
noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A sudden, nonrhythmic motor movement or vocalization.
"Tourette syndrome is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by multiple tics. A tic is a sudden, rapid, repetitive, non-rhythmic movement (e.g. eye blinking) or vocalization (e.g. throat clearing)."
- 2 Clipping of ticket. abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, informal
- 3 Initialism of tourist information centre. abbreviation, alt-of, countable, initialism, uncountable
- 4 a local and habitual twitching especially in the face wordnet
- 5 Something that is done or produced habitually or characteristically. broadly
"Boyle revives some of the stylistic tics which found themselves being ripped off by geezer-gangster Britflicks back in the day, but now the freezeframes are briefer, sharper; the movie itself refers back to the original with variant flashback versions of famous scenes, but also Super 8-type images of the boys’ poignant boyhood in primary school."
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- 6 Initialism of tenancy in common. abbreviation, alt-of, countable, initialism, uncountable
- 7 Initialism of total invested capital. abbreviation, alt-of, countable, initialism, uncountable
- 8 Initialism of offence to be taken into consideration. UK, abbreviation, alt-of, countable, initialism
"TICs must be admitted by a defendant in addition to the crimes for which they have been convicted."
- 9 Initialism of translocon on inner chloroplast membrane. abbreviation, alt-of, countable, initialism, uncountable
- 10 Initialism of thermal imaging camera. abbreviation, alt-of, countable, initialism, uncountable
- 1 To exhibit a tic; to undergo a sudden, semi-voluntary muscle movement. intransitive
"Patients often describe the need to tic as the mounting of inner tension, localized either to the body region where the tic is about to occur or throughout the body."
Example
More examples""Zelda, today I want salami, falafel, pizza, bacon, curry, porridge, vegetables, olives, potatoes, chips, corn, Tic Tacs, muffins, bananas, fish, turkey, chicken, cake, and wheat thins for dinner. So what's for dinner?" "He he, nothing, Father!" "Shut the hell up, you piece of crap, do you mean I'm not eating dinner?!" "Yeah, we got a new king. It's Ganon!" "You are my prisoner!" "Oh crap.""
Etymology
Borrowed from French tic.
Clipping of ticket.
More for "tic"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.