tick away/by/past

phrasal verb

ticked away/by/past; ticking away/by/past; ticks away/by/past

of time

: to pass or go by

Time is ticking away.

She became impatient as the hours ticked by.

Examples of tick away/by/past in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Days sometimes may feel like mere hours when times are good, and the moments may barely tick by in a dull day, but the passage of Earth around the sun hasn’t changed in an easily measurable way since humans first started using sundials. —Joshua Rapp Learn, Discover Magazine, 31 July 2025

The disclosure further reveals the company is writing down the value of the contract as years tick by. —Alexander Coolidge, The Enquirer, 2 July 2025

After a brief hold to resolve last-minute technical glitches, SpaceX resumed the countdown clock to tick away the final seconds before liftoff. —ArsTechnica, 28 May 2025

Bouncing back from a billion-dollar loss is nearly impossible After billion-dollar disasters come, jobs wash away, savings disappear, home values plummet, school days tick by without attendance, and communities fall further and further behind. —Jeremy Ney, Time, 21 May 2025