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 of tick off

• admonish
• reprimand
• get after
• blame
• scold
• get on
• criticize

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

Given the prime location, everything is at your disposal from combing history tomes at Yountville Library to ticking off as many wine tastings as possible in one day. — Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 8 Oct. 2026

Loran was ticked off by Lichtenstein’s Portrait of Madame Cézanne (1963), a painting that borrowed Loran’s own diagram analyzing the Paul Cézanne work of the same name. — Alex Greenberger, ARTnews.com, 7 Oct. 2026

Blaney, ticked off after finishing 33rd following a crash that resulted from contact with Hocevar’s car, took a couple of swings at Hocevar. — Ryan Canfield Outkick, FOXNews.com, 29 Sep. 2026

With eight games left in the regular season, the Dodgers already have ticked off the most important boxes on their to-do list for the postseason. — Los Angeles Times, 19 Sep. 2026

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