What does tock mean?
Tock is an English onomatopoeic word for a sharp, regular clicking sound, particularly the sound associated with a clock. As a noun, it can name an individual sound—“a single tock”—or the recurring noise of a ticking clock; as an intransitive verb, it describes making such a sound. The word is familiar from the traditional pairing “tick-tock,” although the two terms do not always correspond to two genuinely different sounds made by a particular clock. Tock has a playful, literary quality and can lend an old-fashioned or storybook atmosphere to prose. Its older meanings, a knock or tap, are now archaic but survive in historical dictionaries. Because it imitates an audible pattern rather than deriving from a recoverable ancient root, tock belongs to the productive vocabulary of English sound imitation.
A sharp, regular clicking sound, especially one made by a clock or similar mechanism; archaically, a knock or tap.
"The tock of the clock marked each passing minute."
The clock-sound sense is dominant in modern usage; the sense meaning a knock or tap is archaic.
To make a sharp, clock-like clicking sound; archaically, to knock or tap.
"A small clock tocked quietly on the mantelpiece."
Modern use is intransitive and imitative. The older sense of knocking or tapping is archaic.
The plural is used when individual sounds or occurrences are counted.
"The tocks of the clock echoed through the empty station."
A clock says tick, a story says tick-tock—and sometimes the second beat is tock.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does tock come from?
Tock was formed in English as an imitative counterpart to tick, with both words representing clicking or tapping sounds. The familiar pairing tick-tock was established by the late sixteenth century, when tock was also used in the older sense of a knock or tap. It is best understood as sound imitation rather than as a word inherited from a demonstrable ancient root.
Related word forms
How tock is actually used
Tock is chiefly literary or playful rather than technical. Its older senses meaning a knock or tap are now archaic.
Easily confused with tock
Tick and tock are conventional labels for clock-like sounds; many clocks repeat the same sound at each interval rather than alternating between two distinct sounds.