ticked away
Slowly counted down
Ticked away describes time passing in small, steady increments, like the ticking of a clock.
The phrase emphasizes the relentless, measurable quality of elapsed time: The seconds ticked away as she waited for the results.
It often carries a sense of time slipping past or running out: The hours ticked away while he sat paralyzed by indecision.
- clockworkSpring-driven gear system
- secondsTime units, or extras
- minutesSixty-second intervals
- counting downSequential subtraction to zero
- fleetingPassing very quickly
fleeting moments · pendulum · evanescent · hours · time flies · transient · passing · urgency · vanishing · nostalgia · days · temporary · borrowed time · lost time · ephemeral · weeks · gears · melancholy