Definition of "ticking" []

• A strong, tightly woven fabric of cotton or linen used to make pillow and mattress coverings. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "CHO: So Lindsay, 23 and cancer free, made the unusual decision to have doctors remove both of her breasts, to take away what she called the ticking time bomb."
• "I think in the case of someone like Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (ph), one of the top leaders of al Qaeda, I think that that -- you can make a fairly convincing case for going to extreme lengths to get information from him in what they call ticking bomb scenarios, but I think these are very rare cases."
• "Israeli sources say they won't abandon assassinations if they get word of what they call a ticking bomb."