ticket

(tĭk'ĭt)
n.

1. 1. A paper slip or card indicating that its holder has paid for or is entitled to a specified service, right, or consideration: a theater ticket; an airline ticket.
   2. An e-ticket.
2. A certifying document, especially a captain's or pilot's license.
3. An identifying or descriptive tag attached to merchandise; a label.
4. A list of candidates proposed or endorsed by a political party; a slate.
5. A legal summons, especially for a traffic violation.
6. The proper or desirable thing: A change of scene would be just the ticket for us.
7. Informal. A means to an end: "He went to Washington ... to become press secretary ... it was his ticket out of the Delta" (Nicholas Lamann).

tr.v., -et·ed, -et·ing, -ets.

1. To provide with a ticket for passage or admission: ticket all passengers through to Amsterdam.
2. To attach a ticket to; tag. See synonyms at mark¹.
3. To designate for a specified use or end; destine: funds that have been ticketed for medical research.
4. To serve (an offender) with a legal summons: ticket a speeding motorist.

[Obsolete French etiquet, label, note, from Old French estiquet, post serving as a target in certain sports, notice, label, from estiquier, to stick, of Germanic origin.]

WORD HISTORY   The resemblance in form between the words ticket and etiquette is not accidental; both have the same ultimate source, Old French estiquet. But because these words were borrowed into English at different times, they came into our language with different meanings. Old French estiquet meant "a note, label." Having been changed in form to etiquet in French, the word was adopted into English in the 16th century in a form without the initial e, tiket (first recorded in 1528). The earliest uses of the word in English were in the senses "a short written notice," "a notice posted in a public place," and "a written certification." The word is first recorded with reference to something like a ticket of admission in 1673. In French, meanwhile, the word (in the form étiquette) came in the 18th century to mean "a ceremonial, a book in which court ceremonies were noted down or labeled." The French word was borrowed again into English, this time in the form etiquette, which is first recorded in 1750.

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short for order ticket.

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noun

1. An identifying or descriptive slip: label, tag. See marks.
2. A list of candidates proposed or endorsed by a political party: lineup, slate. See politics.
3. A means or method of entering into or achieving something desirable: formula, key, route, secret. See means.

verb

To attach a ticket to: label, mark, tag. See marks.

Origin: 1756

Americans have long been devoted to voting and to the secret ballot. So as far back as 1755 we find Ben Franklin explaining that in Pennsylvania "every one votes...as privately as he pleases, the Election being by written Tickets folded up and put into a Box." By 1764, political parties had already found it useful to suggest that voters choose their particular ticket, or printed list of candidates. Today, voting remains the ticket to democracy, and voting a straight ticket is a party's hope, though there are more nowadays who will vote a split ticket--both of which are terms from the nineteenth century.

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n. 1. a certificate or warrant, in particular, especially a certificate of qualification as a ship's master, pilot, or other crew member.

2. Brit. a certificate of discharge from the army.

3. a list of candidates put forward by a party in an election: his presence on the Republican ticket.

4. a set of principles or policies supported by a party in an election: he stood for office on a strong right-wing, no-nonsense ticket.

ticketless adj.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

A ticket consists of candidates for different offices who appear on an election ballot under the same party symbol and who run as a team. Prior to the election of 1804, tickets were informal because all candidates ran for Presidential electoral votes; the runner-up became Vice President. The 12th Amendment, which took effect that year, called for separate electoral votes for President and Vice President. That year, for the first time, there were distinct candidates for the two positions, and Thomas Jefferson and George Clinton were the winning ticket.

In 1840 Martin Van Buren ran for President with different Vice Presidential candidates on his ticket in each state. That was because the Democratic national convention had resolved not to endorse any one candidate for the Vice Presidency and to leave it instead to state parties to “nominate” their own Vice Presidential candidates to appear on the ballot with Van Buren.

Occasionally, a party has nominated a Vice Presidential candidate from the opposition party. John Tyler ran for Vice President on the Whig ticket in 1840 but was himself a Democrat. In 1864 Republican Abraham Lincoln ran with Democrat Andrew Johnson on the National Unionist ticket to gain votes from Democrats in the border states, such as Tennessee.

Major-party candidates sometimes run simultaneously on minor-party tickets. In 1868, for example, Ulysses S. Grant and Henry Wilson ran not only as Republicans but also on the National Working Men's party ticket. Their opponents, Horace Greeley and Benjamin Brown, ran not only as Democrats but also as Liberal Republicans and as candidates of the Liberal Republican Party of Colored Men. In 1896 William Jennings Bryan received the Presidential nomination of both the Democratic and the Populist parties, and in 1900 Bryan and Adlai Stevenson received the Democratic and Silver Republican nominations.

Of the 54 Presidential elections held between 1789 and 2000, only 8 resulted in the reelection of a President and the incumbent Vice President. The only Presidents who kept their running mates for a second term were George Washington, James Monroe, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton.

IN BRIEF: n. - A slip of paper showing that the holder is entitled to something usually by reason of a payment; A summons given out to the violator of a traffic law.

Each success only buys an admission ticket to a more difficult problem. — Henry Kissinger, Source: Wilson Library Bulletin, March 1979:

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sign description: The bent V-hand pushes against the opposite flat hand.

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Having a ticket gives us a right to enter everything from a theater to an airplane. So tickets in a dream could represent a sense of entitlement. A dream could also be drawing on the meaning of a ticket idiom, such as a "meal ticket," a "big ticket" item, or a "one-way ticket."

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noun
noun, Austral

1: the ticket what is correct or needed. (1838 —) .
G. Swift But sweetness and innocence were never really the ticket, were they? (1988).

2: to have tickets on To have a high opinion of; esp. to have tickets on oneself, to be conceited. (1908 —) .
J. Hibberd You're the bastard that's always been smug and had tickets on himself (1970).

3: A (counterfeit) pass or passport. (1969 —) .
G. M. Fraser Russia—where everyone has to show his damned ticket every few miles (1973).

[In sense 1, perh. from earlier sense, list of election candidates, or from the notion of the winning ticket in a lottery.]

Previous:	ticker, tick-off, tick
Next:	tickety-boo, tickle, tickler

For a list of words related to ticket, see:

• Roadways and Driving - ticket: summons issued for traffic violation
• Elections and Campaigns - ticket: list of candidates; slate
• Commerce and Trade - ticket: slip of paper serving as evidence that holder has paid fare or admission and is entitled to some service

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See words rhyming with "ticket."

  See crossword solutions for the clue Ticket.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
n. - billet, mærkeseddel, lotteriseddel
v. tr. - sætte mærkeseddel på

idioms:

• just the ticket    sådan skal det være
• ticket collector    billetkontrollør

Nederlands (Dutch)
(plaats-/ toegangs) bewijs, (prijs)kaartje, parkeerbon, partij (programma), bekeuren, prijzen

Français (French)
n. - ticket, billet, carte, reconnaissance du mont-de-piété, étiquette, (Aut) PV (fam), contravention, (US, Pol) liste (électorale), programme, (Aviat, Naut) brevet
v. tr. - étiqueter, (US) avoir un PV

idioms:

• just the ticket    exactement ce qu'il nous faut
• ticket collector    (GB) contrôleur

Deutsch (German)
n. - Eintrittskarte, Fahrkarte, (Pfand-/Gepäck)schein, Strafzettel, Lizenz, Etikett, (Slang) Entlassung (aus der Armee), Kandidatenliste, Parteiprogramm, (ugs.) das Richtige
v. - etikettieren, eine Fahrkarte ausstellen

idioms:

• just the ticket    genau das Richtige
• ticket collector    Fahrkartenkontrolleur

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - εισιτήριο, δελτίο, κάρτα, κλήση της τροχαίας, σημείωση, ετικέτα, (ΗΠΑ) ψηφοδέλτιο/πρόγραμμα κόμματος, δίπλωμα (πιλότου, καπετάνιου)
v. - μαρκάρω, βάζω ετικέτα/επιγραφή

idioms:

• just the ticket    αυτό ακριβώς που χρειάζεται
• ticket collector    εισπράκτορας (εισιτηρίων), ελεγκτής εισιτηρίων

Italiano (Italian)
multare, etichettare, biglietto, contravvenzione

idioms:

• just the ticket    quel che ci vuole

Português (Portuguese)
n. - ingresso (m), bilhete (m), rótulo (m), certificado (m), multa (f)
v. - rotular

idioms:

• just the ticket    a coisa certa
• ticket collector    condutor (em veículos coletivos)

Русский (Russian)
билет, штраф, этикетка, оштрафовать, штраф (за превышение скорости и т.п.)

idioms:

• just the ticket    именно то, что требовалось
• ticket collector    контролер

Español (Spanish)
n. - etiqueta, billete, boleta, multa, entrada, localidad
v. tr. - poner etiquetas, etiquetar, vender billetes, rotular, marcar

idioms:

• just the ticket    justo lo que se necesita
• ticket collector    colector de entradas

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - biljett, lapp, parkeringslapp, kvitto, sedel, etikett, kort, kupong, bong
v. - am. pol. kandidatlista, /parti/program, /flyg/certifikat (sl.)

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
票, 券, 入场券, 车票, 标签, 加标签于, 指定, 指派, 表明, 开罚单

idioms:

• just the ticket    适例, 恰好的事情, 所需的东西
• ticket collector    收票员, 验票员, 检票员

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 票, 券, 入場券, 車票, 標簽
v. tr. - 加標簽於, 指定, 指派, 表明, 開罰單

idioms:

• just the ticket    適例, 恰好的事情, 所需的東西
• ticket collector    收票員, 驗票員, 檢票員

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 표, 전당표, 임대 광고
v. tr. - 표를 붙이다, 차표를 팔다, 지명하다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 切符, 近づく手段, 呼出し状, 正札, 付け札, 党公認候補者名簿, 党公認候補者, 伝票, 給料支払い伝票, 札
v. - 札を付ける, レッテルを貼る

idioms:

• ticket collector    集札係
• ticket tout    ダフ屋

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) بطاقه تبين سعر ألشئ (فعل) يزود بتذكرة‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮כרטיס, דו"ח-תנועה, תווית-מחיר, רשימת-מועמדים, עקרונות המפלגה, אישור קבלת פריט, תעודת טייס, קברניט וכו'‬
v. tr. - ‮שם פתק על, ייעד‬

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