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 1668. Cuthbert Bede, in _Notes and Queries_, supplies me with an
earlier date, from the _Gradus ad Cantabrigiam_.
“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 Gul’s
Hornbook_, 1609.
TICKER, a watch.
TICKET, “that’s the TICKET,” _i.e._, what was wanted, or what is
best. Corruption of “that is not _etiquette_,” by adding, in vulgar
pronunciation, _th_ to the first _e_ of 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.
TIDY, tolerably, or pretty well; “how did you get on to-day”—“Oh,
TIDY.”—_Saxon._
TIED UP, given over, finished; also married, in allusion to the
Hymenial knot, unless a jocose allusion be intended to the _halter_
(altar).