tick (redirected from ticks off)

tick: see mite.

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tick

Cattle tick (Boophilus)

(credit: E.R. Degginger/EB Inc.)

Any of some 825 parasitic arachnid species (suborder Ixodida, order Parasitiformes), found worldwide. Adults may be slightly more than an inch (30 mm) long, but most species are much smaller. Hard ticks start and end each developmental stage—egg, larva, nymph, adult—on the ground; at the completion of each stage, they attach to a host (usually a mammal), engorge on blood, then drop to the ground. Soft ticks feed intermittently, pass through several nymphal stages, and live in the host's den or nest. Hard ticks may draw large amounts of blood, secrete paralyzing or lethal neurotoxins, and transmit diseases. Soft ticks may also carry diseases. The deer tick is the principal vector of Lyme disease.

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tick

One clock cycle, or one "tick" of the clock. See clock cycle.

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tick¹

Commerce the smallest increment of a price fluctuation in a commodity exchange. Tick size is usually 0.01% of the nominal value of the trading unit

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tick²

1. any of various small parasitic arachnids of the families Ixodidae (hard ticks) and Argasidae, (soft ticks), typically living on the skin of warm-blooded animals and feeding on the blood and tissues of their hosts: order Acarina (mites and ticks)

2. any of certain other arachnids of the order Acarina

3. any of certain insects of the dipterous family Hippoboscidae that are ectoparasitic on horses, cattle, sheep, etc., esp the sheep ked

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tick¹

1. the strong covering of a pillow, mattress, etc.

2. Informal short for ticking

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tick²

Brit informal account or credit (esp in the phrase on tick)

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tick [tik]

(communications)

A pulse broadcast at 1-second intervals by standard frequency and time broadcasting stations to indicate the exact time.

(computer science)

A time interval equal to ¹⁄₆₀ second, used primarily in discussing computer operations.

(invertebrate zoology)

Any arachnid comprising Ixodoidea; a bloodsucking parasite and important vector of various infectious diseases of humans and lower animals.

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tick - 1. A jiffy (sense 1). 2. In simulations, the discrete unit of time that passes between iterations of the simulation mechanism. In AI applications, this amount of time is often left unspecified, since the only constraint of interest is the ordering of events. This sort of AI simulation is often pejoratively referred to as "tick-tick-tick" simulation, especially when the issue of simultaneity of events with long, independent chains of causes is handwaved. 3. In the FORTH language, a single quote character.