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Glite Dictionary
to make things tick

to make things tick

4.3
Help a team or office work well
  • phrasal verb
  • Informal
translation icon : hacer que las cosas funcionen
  • By analyzing the workflow, she figured out what really makes the project tick and made necessary adjustments.

Examples

  • The manager knows what makes the team tick and encourages collaboration to boost productivity.

  • When I play a game, I always have the desire to inhabit its game world, treat it as a real place, find out about who lives there, and what makes things tick.

    Blog text (22)

  • To improve the company's performance, he focused on what makes the operations tick and streamlined the processes.

Synonyms

to tune
vsto make things tick
  • Specialized
125 3.2

Adjust a machine or system so it works better

is broader and ensures whole processes or organizations run efficiently and effectively

Antonyms

to disrupt
269 4.4

To interrupt normal activity and cause disorder

to dismantle
64 4.2

Take something apart into separate pieces

How Smoothly

to make things tick
  • Informal
4.3

Surface Forms

make things tick infinitive
made things tick past
made things tick past participle
making things tick present participle
makes things tick third person singular

Morphology

make + thing + tick

The phrase combines 'make' (cause) + 'things' (objects) with 'tick' used metaphorically to mean 'run' or 'operate' (from the clock sound). While the overall idea 'cause things to work' is compositional, the use of 'tick' to mean 'function' is a metaphorical extension that a B1 learner who only knows the literal senses may not reliably infer, so the expression is only partially transparent.

Etymology

Make things tick comes from the image of a clock: when parts make it tick, the clock is working correctly. So, to make things tick today means 'to keep a system or group working well'.