ticket
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈtɪk.ɪt/
note: weak vowel merger
ipa: /ˈtɪk.ət/
rhymes: -ɪkɪt
Forms: form: tickets
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.
Senses: examples: text: I've got two tickets for the match on Saturday; want to come?
glosses: 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.
examples: text: train ticket   bus ticket   plane ticket
text: You must show your ticket to the conductor.
glosses: 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.
glosses: 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.
synonyms: license
examples: text: lottery ticket   raffle ticket
text: If I'd used my usual numbers, it would've been a winning ticket! Unlucky!
glosses: 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.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1942 July-August, T. F. Cameron, “How the Staff of a Railway is Recruited”, in Railway Magazine, page 207:
glosses: 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.
examples: text: That's the ticket.
text: I saw my first bike as my ticket to freedom.
text: "Here's the ticket. This hole's big enough for Jim to get through if we wrench off the board."
ref: 1884, Mark Twain, chapter 34, in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, →ISBN:
glosses: A 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.
glosses: A citation for a traffic violation.
examples: text: "Yeah." It was him, alright; if the world's weariest pair of workboots hadn't tipped her off, his world-weary voice certainly would have. "Where were you?"
"My quarters. We've got a full ticket set today, and techs work best without oversight." Neither of these things was untrue, though the curation was more than a little dishonest.
"Maybe yours do." Nascimbeni rolled out, back flat against a neon orange creeper, and sat up with an audible wince. "Mine fuck the dog."
ref: 2022 September 19, HarryBlank, “Beyond Repair”, in SCP Foundation, archived from the original on 15 Sep 2024:
qualifier: usually technical support
glosses: A service request, used to track complaints or requests that an issue be handled.
examples: text: Joe has joined the party's ticket for the county elections.
text: Joe will be running on an anti-crime ticket.
text: 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.
ref: 2019 March 3, Simon van Zuylen-Wood, “When Did Everyone Become a Socialist?”, in New York Magazine:
text: 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
ref: 2020 November 7, Chelsea Janes, “Kamala Harris, daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, elected nation’s first female vice president”, in Washington Post:
topics: government
politics
glosses: A list of candidates for an election, or a particular theme to a candidate's manifesto.
examples: text: 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.
ref: a. 1662 (date written), Thomas Fuller, The History of the Worthies of England, London: […] J[ohn] G[rismond,] W[illiam] L[eybourne] and W[illiam] G[odbid], published 1662, →OCLC:
glosses: A small note or notice.
examples: text: Your courtier is mad to take up silks and velvets / On ticket for his mistress.
ref: 1633, Shackerley Marmion, A Fine Companion:
glosses: A tradesman's bill or account (hence the phrase on ticket and eventually on tick).
glosses: A label affixed to goods to show their price or description.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1878, Mrs. James Mason, All about Edith, page 124:
text: "Mr. Gibbs come in just now," said Mrs. Blewett, "and left his ticket over the chimley. There 'tis. I haven't touched it."
ref: 1899, The Leisure Hour: An Illustrated Magazine for Home Reading:
glosses: A visiting card.
examples: text: […] I need a ticket, Bobby.” Agnor knew a ticket meant a search warrant.
ref: 1999, Doug Most, Always in Our Hearts, page 148:
topics: government
law-enforcement
glosses: A warrant.
Derived terms: airline ticket
air ticket
all-ticket
back to back ticket
balance the ticket
beer ticket
big-ticket
big ticket
big-ticket item
blue ticket
boiler ticket
bread ticket
buy a ticket to
commutation ticket
couldn't organise a two-ticket raffle
cross-border ticket
down-ticket
E ticket
e-ticket
exit ticket
flight ticket
golden ticket
hard-ticket
have tickets on oneself
high-ticket
hot ticket
incident ticket system
just the ticket
kangaroo ticket
like a pakapoo ticket
lottery ticket
meal ticket
meat ticket
one-way ticket
one-way ticket to Palookaville
paper ticket
parking ticket
pink ticket
plane ticket
platform ticket
punch someone's ticket
return ticket
round-trip ticket
season ticket
seat reservation ticket
sell wolf tickets
shit ticket
single ticket
small-ticket
smart ticket
speeding ticket
split ticket
straight ticket
support ticket
support ticket system
that's the ticket
that's the ticket for soup
the full ticket
through-ticket
ticket agent
ticket barrier
ticket booth
ticket-collector
ticket collector
ticket day
ticket designator
ticket gate
ticket hall
ticket-holder
ticket inspection
ticket-inspector
ticket inspector
ticket machine
ticketmate
ticket office
ticket-of-leave
ticket of leave
ticket of occupation
ticket point mileage
ticket-porter
ticket porter
ticket printer
ticket stamping machine
ticket-stamping machine
ticket time limit
ticket to ride
ticket tout
ticket vending machine
ticket window
traffic ticket
train ticket
trouble ticket
trouble ticket system
Tyburn ticket
visiting ticket
walking ticket
wolf's ticket
wolf ticket
woof ticket
write one's own ticket
yellow ticket
Related terms: Ticket in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)