Citations:take a licking and keep on ticking

English citations of take a licking and keep on ticking

English

Phrase

1. To be tough; to have endurance, to have the capacity to absorb stress or damage, but still be able to function.
   • 2008, George R. R. Martin et al., Inside Straight, p. 124

     How am I supposed to knock these other guys off. My wild card is nothing but defensive. I take a licking and keep on ticking. Big whoop.

   • 2006, Anthony Mancuso, LLC Or Corporation?: How to Choose the Right Form for Your Business, p. 47:

     Insurance allows your business to take a licking and keep on ticking.

   • 2005, Ted Bell, Pirate: A Novel, p. 3:

     Harry Brock, creeping up on forty, could still take a licking and keep on ticking. So far, anyway.

   • 2002, Lawrence Block, Hope to Die: A Matthew Scudder Crime Novel, p. 374:

     You were scarred, like the heart, you took a licking and kept on ticking, and you healed.

   • 1997 Ira Livingston, Arrow of Chaos: Romanticism and Postmodernity, section 2.3:

     The persistence-through-change of Romantic ideologemes — the way they've taken a licking and kept on ticking — is explicable by their extension and saturation — their participation — in ongoing formations of capitalism and disciplinarity.

   • 1996, Fred Van Dyke et al., Redeeming Creation: The Biblical Basis for Environmental Stewardship, p. 33:

     There is no hint of the deistic, Enlightenment concept of God as the great watchmaker who winds up the universe and then leaves it to take a licking and keep on ticking.

   • 1995, Daniel T. Bobola, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Networking, p. 39:

     Your file server and its network operating system can take a licking and keep on ticking.

   • 1994, Pinckney Benedict, Dogs of God, p. 204:

     "That," the first said, "was one hardy son of a bitch. Took a licking but went on ticking. I heard he made it all the way down off the mountain before he snuffed it."

   • 1989, Frederick S. Clarke, Cinefantastique, p. 36:

     I feel that movies Schwarzenegger's Quaid, takes a licking but keeps on ticking, not believable at the film's put upon hero per O'Bannon.

   • 1986, David Morrell, The Fraternity of the Stone, p. 177:

     But the car amazed him. It kept going. And that too struck him as funny. Takes a licking, keeps on ticking.