From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishtick away/by/past phrasal verbPASS/TIME PASSINGif time ticks away, by, or past, it passes, especially when you are waiting for something to happen We need a decision – time’s ticking away. The minutes ticked past and still she didn’t call. → tick→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
tick away/by/past• Soon the mornings would be cauldrons of mists, slowly rising and clearing as the mornings ticked by.• And he seemed to be concentrating on his driving as a minute or two ticked by in silence.• I thought of the seconds ticking by, minutes wasted before I had to go back to the dang.• At nearby Camberwick Green, life ticked by on the same orderly lines.• The slow hours seemed to tick by one tick at a time in the night.• He knew that time was ticking away remorselessly, though less than half a minute had passed.• The day ticked by slowly and finally I was out on the street, running toward the Trowbridge house. 