tick over

tick over

vb (intr, adverb)

1. (Engineering / Automotive Engineering) Also idle Brit (of an engine) to run at low speed with the throttle control closed and the transmission disengaged

2. to run smoothly without any major changes keep the firm ticking over until I get back

n tick-over

(Engineering / Automotive Engineering) Brit

a.  the speed of an engine when it is ticking over

b.  (as modifier) tick-over speed

Thesaurus

Verb

1.

tick over - run disconnected or idle; "the engine is idling" idle

Translations

? tick over

vi

(= idle: engine) → im Leerlauf sein; the engine is ticking over nicely → der Motor läuft ganz gut or ruhig

(fig: business etc) → ganz ordentlich laufen; (pej) → auf Sparflamme sein (inf); to keep things ticking over → die Sache in Gang halten