tick over

verb — 2 senses

tick over

verb

1

Of an engine to idle (to run at a slow speed, or out of gear).

2

Idiomatic To run smoothly and without problems.

While the boss was on holiday, the deputy made sure things were ticking over in the firm.
So soon we're too old to carry We knew we only had a little while In the middle keep ticking over Before you know it, parent a parent2011, The Maccabees, Pelican:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.