tick off

verb

ticked off; ticking off; ticks off

transitive verb

1

: to make angry or indignant

the cancellation really ticked me off

2

: reprimand, rebuke

his father ticked him off for his impudence

Synonyms

• admonish
• chide
• rebuke
• reprimand
• reproach
• reprove

Examples of tick off in a Sentence

she royally ticked the babysitter off for letting the child play outside unsupervised

it really ticks me off when someone says something like that

Recent Examples on the Web

As the seconds ticked off the clock and the bricks piled up, what had been roaring cheers from the hometown Chase Center crowd Saturday night quickly morphed into groans during the final round of the NBA All-Star Skills Challenge. —Joseph Dycus, The Mercury News, 15 Feb. 2025

One second had ticked off the clock since the first fight. —Arpon Basu, The Athletic, 15 Feb. 2025

This Netflix Original gleefully ticks off the rom-com bingo card: an elevator meet-cute, a late-night pizza bonding session, and yes, even a dramatic run to the airport. —Janey Tracey, EW.com, 7 Feb. 2025

Zach Conrad, a food-systems expert at the College of William & Mary, ticked off a multitude of reasons domestic production could not re-create our current avocado bounty. —Yasmin Tayag, The Atlantic, 8 Feb. 2025

Word History

Etymology

tick entry 2

First Known Use

1915, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Rhymes for tick off

• ashraf
• checkoff
• cutoff
• falloff
• handoff
• kickoff
• layoff
• liftoff
• markoff
• markov
• payoff
• playoff