[Note: Parts of this entry were previously at the original barn ball.]
barn tick n NEng ?obs
= barn ball n 1.
1876 Phillips Oakum 83 csMA, One day you were playing “barn tick” with Sammy Smith, when your father came out and said: “Come, Henry, go and catch Jenny.” . . You threw down the bat regretfully, not so much because you were loath to give up your runs, . . as because it was so natural to fetch that old ball of stocking yarn, with a cork in the middle, a blow which would send it soaring. 1894 Boston Sun. Globe (MA) 8 Apr 25/5, Two and three old cat, barn tick, and buck, buck, how many fingers have I got up, are games almost unknown in Boston now, but in the country the boys still keep it up when there are not enough around to make up a game of scrub or to choose up for sides. 1907 Independent 62.1339 CT, To catch them [=fish] and let them go savors a little of taking a ball and going out to play barn-tick with yourself. 1969 DARE (Qu. EE11) Inf MA73, Barn tick—boys threw ball against the barn and hit it or caught it when it came back—usually played by one person.