"take a licking and keep on ticking" meaning in English

See take a licking and keep on ticking in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: En-au-take a licking and keep on ticking.ogg [Australia] Forms: takes a licking and keeps on ticking [present, singular, third-person], taking a licking and keeping on ticking [participle, present], took a licking and kept on ticking [past], taken a licking and kept on ticking [participle, past]
Etymology: Derived from the advertising slogan for Timex wrist-watches. Head templates: {{en-verb|take<,,took,taken> a licking and keep<,,kept> on ticking|head=take a licking and keep on ticking}} take a licking and keep on ticking (third-person singular simple present takes a licking and keeps on ticking, present participle taking a licking and keeping on ticking, simple past took a licking and kept on ticking, past participle taken a licking and kept on ticking)
  1. (idiomatic) To be tough; to have endurance; to have the capacity to absorb stress or damage, but still be able to function. Tags: idiomatic
    Sense id: en-take_a_licking_and_keep_on_ticking-en-verb-epjT5gbt Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header

Download JSON data for take a licking and keep on ticking meaning in English (3.3kB)

{
  "etymology_text": "Derived from the advertising slogan for Timex wrist-watches.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "takes a licking and keeps on ticking",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "taking a licking and keeping on ticking",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "took a licking and kept on ticking",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "taken a licking and kept on ticking",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "take<,,took,taken> a licking and keep<,,kept> on ticking",
        "head": "take a licking and keep on ticking"
      },
      "expansion": "take a licking and keep on ticking (third-person singular simple present takes a licking and keeps on ticking, present participle taking a licking and keeping on ticking, simple past took a licking and kept on ticking, past participle taken a licking and kept on ticking)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2008, George R. R. Martin et al., Inside Straight, page 124",
          "text": "How am I supposed to knock these other guys off. My wild card is nothing but defensive. I take a licking and keep on ticking. Big whoop.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2006, Anthony Mancuso, LLC Or Corporation?: How to Choose the Right Form for Your Business, page 47",
          "text": "Insurance allows your business to take a licking and keep on ticking.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1997, Ira Livingston, Arrow of Chaos: Romanticism and Postmodernity, section 2.3",
          "text": "The persistence-through-change of Romantic ideologemes — the way they've taken a licking and kept on ticking — is explicable by their extension and saturation — their participation — in ongoing formations of capitalism and disciplinarity.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1994, Pinckney Benedict, Dogs of God, page 204",
          "text": "\"That,\" the first said, \"was one hardy son of a bitch. Took a licking but went on ticking. I heard he made it all the way down off the mountain before he snuffed it.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1986, David Morrell, The Fraternity of the Stone, page 177",
          "text": "But the car amazed him. It kept going. And that too struck him as funny. Takes a licking, keeps on ticking.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To be tough; to have endurance; to have the capacity to absorb stress or damage, but still be able to function."
      ],
      "id": "en-take_a_licking_and_keep_on_ticking-en-verb-epjT5gbt",
      "links": [
        [
          "tough",
          "tough"
        ],
        [
          "endurance",
          "endurance"
        ],
        [
          "stress",
          "stress"
        ],
        [
          "damage",
          "damage"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To be tough; to have endurance; to have the capacity to absorb stress or damage, but still be able to function."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-take a licking and keep on ticking.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/69/En-au-take_a_licking_and_keep_on_ticking.ogg/En-au-take_a_licking_and_keep_on_ticking.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/En-au-take_a_licking_and_keep_on_ticking.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "take a licking and keep on ticking"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "Derived from the advertising slogan for Timex wrist-watches.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "takes a licking and keeps on ticking",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "taking a licking and keeping on ticking",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "took a licking and kept on ticking",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "taken a licking and kept on ticking",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "take<,,took,taken> a licking and keep<,,kept> on ticking",
        "head": "take a licking and keep on ticking"
      },
      "expansion": "take a licking and keep on ticking (third-person singular simple present takes a licking and keeps on ticking, present participle taking a licking and keeping on ticking, simple past took a licking and kept on ticking, past participle taken a licking and kept on ticking)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2008, George R. R. Martin et al., Inside Straight, page 124",
          "text": "How am I supposed to knock these other guys off. My wild card is nothing but defensive. I take a licking and keep on ticking. Big whoop.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2006, Anthony Mancuso, LLC Or Corporation?: How to Choose the Right Form for Your Business, page 47",
          "text": "Insurance allows your business to take a licking and keep on ticking.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1997, Ira Livingston, Arrow of Chaos: Romanticism and Postmodernity, section 2.3",
          "text": "The persistence-through-change of Romantic ideologemes — the way they've taken a licking and kept on ticking — is explicable by their extension and saturation — their participation — in ongoing formations of capitalism and disciplinarity.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1994, Pinckney Benedict, Dogs of God, page 204",
          "text": "\"That,\" the first said, \"was one hardy son of a bitch. Took a licking but went on ticking. I heard he made it all the way down off the mountain before he snuffed it.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1986, David Morrell, The Fraternity of the Stone, page 177",
          "text": "But the car amazed him. It kept going. And that too struck him as funny. Takes a licking, keeps on ticking.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To be tough; to have endurance; to have the capacity to absorb stress or damage, but still be able to function."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "tough",
          "tough"
        ],
        [
          "endurance",
          "endurance"
        ],
        [
          "stress",
          "stress"
        ],
        [
          "damage",
          "damage"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To be tough; to have endurance; to have the capacity to absorb stress or damage, but still be able to function."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-take a licking and keep on ticking.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/69/En-au-take_a_licking_and_keep_on_ticking.ogg/En-au-take_a_licking_and_keep_on_ticking.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/En-au-take_a_licking_and_keep_on_ticking.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "take a licking and keep on ticking"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-05 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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