ticket

Etymology

From Middle English ticket, from Old French etiquet m, *estiquet m, and etiquette f, estiquette f (“a bill, note, label, ticket”), from Old French estechier, estichier, estequier (“to attach, stick”), (compare Picard estiquier (“to stick, pierce”)), from Frankish *stikkjan, *stekan (“to stick, pierce, sting”), from Proto-Germanic *stikaną, *stikōną, *staikijaną (“to be sharp, pierce, prick”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teyg- (“to be sharp, to stab”). Doublet of etiquette. More at stick.

noun

1. A pass entitling the holder to admission to a show, concert, etc.
2. A pass entitling the holder to board a train, a bus, a plane, or other means of transportation
3. A citation for a traffic violation.
4. A permit to operate a machine on a construction site.
5. A service request, used to track complaints or requests that an issue be handled. (Generally technical support related).
6. (informal) A list of candidates for an election, or a particular theme to a candidate's manifesto.
   Joe has joined the party's ticket for the county elections.
   Joe will be running on an anti-crime ticket.
   Harris’s victory comes 55 years after the Voting Rights Act abolished laws that disenfranchised Black Americans, 36 years after the first woman ran on a presidential ticket and four years after Democrats were devastated by the defeat of Hillary Clinton November 7 2020, Chelsea Janes, “Kamala Harris, daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, elected nation’s first female vice president”, in Washington Post
7. A solution to a problem; something that is needed.
   That's the ticket.
   I saw my first bike as my ticket to freedom.
   "Here's the ticket. This hole's big enough for Jim to get through if we wrench off the board." 1884, Mark Twain, chapter 34, in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
8. (dated) A little note or notice.
9. (dated) A tradesman's bill or account (hence the phrase on ticket and eventually on tick).
   Your courtier is mad to take up silks and velvets / On ticket for his mistress. 1633, Shackerley Marmion, A Fine Companion
10. A label affixed to goods to show their price or description.
11. A certificate or token of a share in a lottery or other scheme for distributing money, goods, etc.
12. (dated) A visiting card.
    I asked for a card, please, and she was quite put about, and said that she didn't require tickets to get in where she visited. 1878, Mrs. James Mason, All about Edith, page 124
    "Mr. Gibbs come in just now," said Mrs. Blewett, "and left his ticket over the chimley. There 'tis. I haven't touched it." 1899, The Leisure Hour: An Illustrated Magazine for Home Reading
13. (law enforcement slang) A warrant.
    […] I need a ticket, Bobby.” Agnor knew a ticket meant a search warrant. 1999, Doug Most, Always in Our Hearts, page 148
14. A certificate of qualification as a ship's master, pilot, or other crew member.
    The variety of the demands of the railways for staff is almost endless. They require men with master's tickets as dock masters and to command their steamships. 1942 July-August, T. F. Cameron, “How the Staff of a Railway is Recruited”, in Railway Magazine, page 207

verb

1. To issue someone a ticket, as for travel or for a violation of a local or traffic law.
2. To mark with a ticket.
   to ticket goods in a retail store