ticket

nounverbcommon in dialogue

United States//ˈtɪk.ɪt//
//ˈtɪk.ət//

A small document that acts as proof of something, often thereby granting the holder some ability. A pass entitling the holder to admission to a show, concert, sporting event, etc.

noun

1
A small document that acts as proof of something, often thereby granting the holder some ability. A pass entitling the holder to admission to a show, concert, sporting event, etc.
I've got two tickets for the match on Saturday; want to come?
2
A small document that acts as proof of something, often thereby granting the holder some ability. A pass entitling the holder to board a train, a bus, a plane, or other means of transportation.
train ticket bus ticket plane ticket
You must show your ticket to the conductor.
3
A small document that acts as proof of something, often thereby granting the holder some ability. A permit to operate a machine on a construction site.
4
A small document that acts as proof of something, often thereby granting the holder some ability. A certificate or token of a share in a lottery or other scheme for distributing money, goods, etc.
lottery ticket raffle ticket
If I'd used my usual numbers, it would've been a winning ticket! Unlucky!
5
A small document that acts as proof of something, often thereby granting the holder some ability. A certificate of qualification as a ship's master, pilot, or other crew member.
The variety of the demands of the railways for staff is almost endless. They require men with master's tickets as dock masters and to command their steamships.
6
figurativeA small document that acts as proof of something, often thereby granting the holder some ability. A solution to a problem; something that is needed in order to do something.
That's the ticket.
I saw my first bike as my ticket to freedom.
"Here's the ticket. This hole's big enough for Jim to get through if we wrench off the board."
7
A citation for a traffic violation.
8
A service request, used to track complaints or requests that an issue be handled.
9
informalA list of candidates for an election, or a particular theme to a candidate's manifesto.
Joe has joined the party's ticket for the county elections.
Joe will be running on an anti-crime ticket.
Candidates like Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders are no longer too precious to run on the Democratic ticket, though the proposals they suggest are so ambitious — like Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, and free public college — that they don’t feel like compromises at all.
Harris’s victory comes 55 years after the Voting Rights Act abolished laws that disenfranchised Black Americans, 36 years after the first woman ran on a presidential ticket and four years after Democrats were devastated by the defeat of Hillary Clinton
10
datedA small note or notice.
He constantly read his lectures twice a week for above forty years, giving notice of the time to his auditors in a ticket on the school doors.
Under each coin was a circular ticket with written particulars of the specimen accompanying it.
11
datedA tradesman's bill or account (hence the phrase on ticket and eventually on tick).
Your courtier is mad to take up silks and velvets / On ticket for his mistress.
12
A label affixed to goods to show their price or description.
13
datedA visiting card.
I asked for a card, please, and she was quite put about, and said that she didn't require tickets to get in where she visited.
"Mr. Gibbs come in just now," said Mrs. Blewett, "and left his ticket over the chimley. There 'tis. I haven't touched it."
14
slangA warrant.
[…] I need a ticket, Bobby.” Agnor knew a ticket meant a search warrant.

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle Scots tikkat, tikket, from Middle French etiquet m, estiquet m, and etiquette f, estiquette f (“a bill, note, label, ticket”), from Old French estechier, estichier, estequier (“to attach, stick”), (compare Picard estiquier (“to stick, pierce”)), from Frankish *stikkjan, *stekan (“to stick, pierce, sting”), from Proto-Germanic *stikaną, *stikōną, *staikijaną (“to be sharp, pierce, prick”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teyg- (“to be sharp, to stab”). Doublet of etiquette. More at stick.

verb

1
To issue someone a ticket, as for travel or for a violation of a local or traffic law.
2
To mark with a ticket.
to ticket goods in a retail store

Forms

plural: tickets
past tense: ticketed
past participle: ticketed
present participle: ticketing
third person singular: tickets

tic · A sudden, nonrhythmic motor movement or vocalization.tick · A tiny woodland arachnid of the suborder Ixodida.tick-tock · The sound of the ticking of an analog clock.

ticket · A small document that acts as proof of something, often thereby granting the holder some ability. A pass entitling the holder to admission to a show,…

tickets · A single ticket.ticking · A strong cotton or linen fabric used to cover pillows and…tickle · The act of tickling.

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