subs. (old).—1. An account; a score: now TICK (q.v.).
2. (old).—A pass; a license: also TICKRUM (B. E. and GROSE): cf. approximation to Fr. étiquette. Hence (3) a visiting card: whence (from 2 and 3) THE TICKET = the correct thing; THAT’S THE TICKET = that’s the thing, that’s all right: also ‘that’s THE TICKET FOR SOUP’ = ‘You’ve got it—be off!’
[1611. CORYATE, Crudities, I. 57. The porter … gave me a little TICKET under his hand as a kind of warrant for mine entertainement in mine Inne.]
1782. BURNEY, Cecilia, I. iii. A TICKET is only a visiting card with a name upon it; but we call them TICKETS now.
1783–5. COWPER, The Task, iii.
| Well dressed, well bred, | |
| Well equipaged, is TICKET good enough | |
| To pass us readily through every door. |
1854–5. THACKERAY, The Newcomes, vii. She’s very handsome and she’s very finely dressed, only somehow she’s not—she’s not THE TICKET, you see. Ibid. (1862), The Adventures of Philip, xiii. Poor dear Mrs. Jones … still calls on the ladies of your family and slips her husband’s TICKET upon the hall table.
1862. A. TROLLOPE, Orley Farm, lxvii. That’s about THE TICKET in this country.
1862. REV. E. BRADLEY (‘Cuthbert Bede’), Tales of College Life, 19. That’s THE TICKET; that will just land me in time for gates.
1884. S. L. CLEMENS (‘Mark Twain’), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, xxviii. ‘’Deed, that ain’t THE TICKET, Miss Mary Jane,’ I says, ‘by no manner of means.’
4. (American political).—(a) A printed list of candidates in an election; (b) the candidates; and (c) a policy; A PLATFORM (q.v.). Whence STRAIGHT TICKET = the party nominations, representing the official programme; SPLIT TICKET = a divided policy, a TICKET containing the names of candidates representing several differing interests or divisions; SCRATCHED-TICKET = a list of candidates from which names have been erased; MIXED TICKET = a list in which the nominations of different interests or parties have been blended. TO RUN AHEAD OF THE (or ONE’S TICKET), see quot. 1899.
1883. The Nation, 6 Sept., 200, 1. If he can elect such a TICKET, even in Virginia alone, he will take the field after election as a ‘striker.’
1885. Daily Telegraph, 17 Oct. To vote solidly the Parnell TICKET.
1899. Century Dictionary, s.v. TICKET. TO RUN AHEAD OF THE TICKET, in U.S. politics, to receive a larger vote than the average vote polled by one’s associates on the same electoral ticket. Similarly TO RUN BEHIND THE TICKET is to receive less than such an average vote.
A HARD TICKET, subs. phr. (American).—An unscrupulous man; a ‘hard nut to crack.’
TO WORK THE TICKET, verb. phr. (military).—To procure discharge by being pronounced medically unfit.
1899. H. WYNDHAM, The Queen’s Service, xxxiii. There is still a good deal of malingering in the Service … it is a comparatively easy matter for a discontented man TO WORK HIS TICKET.
