time

[[t]ta͟ɪm[/t]]

♦

times, timing, timed

1) N-UNCOUNT Time is what we measure in minutes, hours, days, and years.

...a two-week period of time...

Time passed, and still Ma did not appear...

As time went on the visits got more and more regular...

The social significance of religion has changed over time.

2) N-SING: what/the N You use time to ask or talk about a specific point in the day, which can be stated in hours and minutes and is shown on clocks.

`What time is it?' - `Eight o'clock.'...

He asked me the time...

What time did he leave?...

I phoned my mother to ask what time she was coming home...

The time is now 19 minutes past the hour.

3) N-COUNT The time when something happens is the point in the day when it happens or is supposed to happen.

→ See also opening time

Departure times are 08:15 from St Quay, and 18:15 from St Helier.

4) N-UNCOUNT: supp N You use time to refer to the system of expressing time and counting hours that is used in a particular part of the world.

The tidal predictions are expressed in Greenwich Mean Time. Add one hour for British Summer Time...

The incident happened just after ten o'clock local time.

5) N-UNCOUNT: also a N You use time to refer to the period that you spend doing something or when something has been happening.

Adam spent a lot of time in his grandfather's office...

He wouldn't have the time or money to take care of me...

Listen to me, I haven't got much time...

It's obvious that you need more time to think...

The route was blocked for some time...

For a long time I didn't tell anyone...

A short time later they sat down to eat...

Thank you very much for your time.

6) N-SING: a N If you say that something has been happening for a time you mean that it has been happening for a fairly long period of time.

He was also for a time the art critic of `The Scotsman'...

He stayed for quite a time...

After a time they came to a pond.

7) N-COUNT: with supp, oft prep N You use time to refer to a period of time or a point in time, when you are describing what is happening then. For example, if something happened at a particular time, that is when it happened. If it happens at all times, it always happens.

We were in the same college, which was male-only at that time...

By this time he was thirty...

During the time I was married I tried to be the perfect wife...

It was a time of terrible uncertainty...

Homes are more affordable than at any time in the past five years...

It seemed like a good time to tell her...

There were times when he would ring his bell at all hours of the day or night.

8) N-COUNT: with supp, usu adj N, N of n You use time or times to talk about a particular period in history or in your life.

They were hard times and his parents had been struggling to raise their family...

We'll be alone together, quite like old times...

We are in one of the most severe recessions in modern times...

A `Felucca' is the traditional Nile sailboat, unchanged since the time of the pharaohs.

9) N-PLURAL: the N You can use the times to refer to the present time and to modern fashions, tastes, and developments. For example, if you say that someone keeps up with the times, you mean they are fashionable or aware of modern developments. If you say they are behind the times, you mean they are unfashionable or not aware of them.

He is unafraid to move with the times...

This approach is now seriously out of step with the times...

Johnny has changed his image to fit the times.

10) N-COUNT: adj N When you describe the time that you had on a particular occasion or during a particular part of your life, you are describing the sort of experience that you had then.

Sarah and I had a great time while the kids were away...

She's had a really tough time the last year and a half...

You had an easy time of it at home...

I try to remember all the good times I've had here.

11) N-SING: poss N Your time is the amount of time that you have to live, or to do a particular thing.

Now Martin has begun to suffer the effects of AIDS, and he says his time is running out...

Every administration has its time. And when your time is over, you leave...

I doubt I would change anything if I had my time again.

12) N-UNCOUNT: oft N for n, N to-inf, N that If you say it is time for something, time to do something, or time you did something, you mean that this thing ought to happen or be done now.

Opinion polls indicated a feeling among the public that it was time for a change...

It was time for him to go to work...

This was no time to make a speech...

The time has come to put an end to the conflict...

It's time you went to school.

13) N-COUNT: with supp When you talk about a time when something happens, you are referring to a specific occasion when it happens.

Every time she travels on the bus it's delayed by at least three hours...

The last time I saw her was about sixteen years ago...

House prices are rising for the first time since November...

Next time you go shopping, throw in a few extra fruit and vegetables...

Remember that time she picked up my daughter when I was ill?.

14) N-COUNT: usu num/ord N You use time after numbers to say how often something happens.

It was her job to make tea three times a day...

How many times has your mother told you never to talk to strangers?...

The Masters golf tournament was won a second time by the American Ben Hogan.

15) N-PLURAL: num N compar, num N as adj/adv, num N n You use times after numbers when comparing one thing to another and saying, for example, how much bigger, smaller, better, or worse it is.

Its profits are rising four times faster than the average company...

Young people were several times more likely to be out of work than older members of the workforce...

He polled four times as many votes as his rival.

...an area five times the size of Britain.

16) CONJ-COORD You use times in arithmetic to link numbers or amounts that are multiplied together to reach a total.

Four times six is 24.

17) N-COUNT: with supp, oft poss N, N of n Someone's time in a race is the amount of time it takes them to finish the race.

He was over a second faster than his previous best time...

She recorded a time of two minutes 8.74 seconds.

18) N-UNCOUNT: usu supp N, oft in N The time of a piece of music is the number of beats that the piece has in each bar.

A reel is in four-four time, and a jig is in six-eight time.

19) VERB If you time something for a particular time, you plan or decide to do it or cause it to happen at this time.

[V n to-inf] He timed the election to coincide with new measures to boost the economy...

[V n for n] We had timed our visit for March 7...

[V n adv] He had timed his intervention well...

[V-ed] Operation Amazon is timed to coincide with the start of the dry season. [Also V n]

20) VERB If you time an action or activity, you measure how long someone takes to do it or how long it lasts.

[V n] He timed each performance with a stop-watch.

21) → See also timing

22) PHRASE: it v-link PHR that, PHR as reply (emphasis) If you say it is about time that something was done, you are saying in an emphatic way that it should happen or be done now, and really should have happened or been done sooner.

It's about time a few movie makers with original ideas were given a chance...

`Here she is.' - `About time too.'

23) PHRASE: PHR after v If you do something ahead of time, you do it before a particular event or before you need to, in order to be well prepared.

Find out ahead of time what regulations apply to your situation.

Syn:

in advance

24) PHRASE: v-link PHR, oft PHR in -ing If someone is ahead of their time or before their time, they have new ideas a long time before other people start to think in the same way.

He was indeed ahead of his time in employing women, ex-convicts, and the handicapped...

His only fundamental mistake, he insists, is that he was 20 years before his time.

25) PHRASE: PHR after v If something happens or is done all the time, it happens or is done continually.

We can't be together all the time...

I get the two of them mixed up all the time, they're so similar.

Syn:

continually

26) PHRASE: amount PHR You say at a time after an amount to say how many things or how much of something is involved in one action, place, or group.

Beat in the eggs, one at a time...

She ran for the staircase and down the steps, taking them two at a time...

Do you sometimes find that you are doing very little physical exercise for several weeks at a time?

27) PHRASE: PHR with cl If something could happen at any time, it is possible that it will happen very soon, though nobody can predict exactly when.

Conditions are still very tense and the fighting could escalate at any time.

Syn:

at any moment

28) PHRASE: PHR with cl (emphasis) You say at the best of times when you are making a negative or critical comment to emphasize that it is true even when the circumstances are as favourable as possible.

His voice is hardly resonant at the best of times. Today he is almost inaudible.

29) PHRASE: PHR with cl If you say that something was the case at one time, you mean that it was the case during a particular period in the past.

At one time 400 men, women and children lived in the village.

...enormous glaciers, which at one time covered vast areas of the northern hemisphere.

30) PHRASE: PHR with cl If two or more things exist, happen, or are true at the same time, they exist, happen, or are true together although they seem to contradict each other.

I was afraid of her, but at the same time I really liked her...

She was somehow able to look sad and cheerful at the same time.

31) PHRASE: PHR with cl At the same time is used to introduce a statement that slightly changes or contradicts the previous statement.

I don't think I set out to come up with a different sound for each album. At the same time, I do have a sense of what is right for the moment.

32) PHRASE: PHR with cl/group You use at times to say that something happens or is true on some occasions or at some moments.

The debate was highly emotional at times...

At times she had an overwhelming desire to see him...

He went on listening to her, at times impatient and at times fascinated.

Syn:

sometimes

33) PHRASE: usu v-link PHR If you say that something was before your time, you mean that it happened or existed before you were born or before you were able to know about it or remember it.

`You've never seen the Marilyn Monroe film?' - `No, I think it was a bit before my time.'

34) PHRASE: PHR after v If someone has reached a particular stage in life before their time, they have reached it at a younger age than is normal.

The small print has forced me, years before my time, to buy spectacles...

There is nothing like a college town to make you feel old before your time.

35) PHRASE: PHR with cl (emphasis) If you say not before time after a statement has been made about something that has been done, you are saying in an emphatic way that you think it should have been done sooner. [BRIT]

The virus is getting more and more attention, and not before time...

Not before time, that is about to change.

36) PHRASE: V inflects If you call time on something, you end it. [mainly BRIT, JOURNALISM]

Scott Hastings has called time on his international career by cutting short his contract.

37) PHRASE: V inflects Someone who is doing time is in prison. [INFORMAL]

He is serving 11 years for robbery, and did time for a similar offence before that.

38) PHRASE: usu PHR with v, PHR with group If you say that something will be the case for all time, you mean that it will always be the case.

The desperate condition of the world is that madness has always been here, and that it will remain so for all time.

39) PHRASE: PHR with cl If something is the case or will happen for the time being, it is the case or will happen now, but only until something else becomes possible or happens.

For the time being, however, immunotherapy is still in its experimental stages...

The situation is calm for the time being.

Syn:

for now

40) PHRASE: PHR with v, PHR with cl If you do something from time to time, you do it occasionally but not regularly.

Her daughters visited him from time to time when he was ill.

Syn:

now and again

41) PHRASE: PHR with cl If you say that something is the case half the time you mean that it often is the case. [INFORMAL]

Half the time, I don't have the slightest idea what he's talking about.

42) PHRASE: V inflects, PHR n If you say that you have no time for a person or thing, you mean you do not like them or approve of them, and if you say that you have a lot of time for a person or thing, you mean you like them or approve of them very much.

When I think of what he's done to my mother and me, I've just got no time for him...

I have got a lot of time for people who are prepared to put the welfare of their party above their own vanity.

43) PHRASE: V inflects, PHR that, PHR to-inf (emphasis) If you say that it is high time that something happened or was done, you are saying in an emphatic way that it should happen or be done now, and really should have happened or been done sooner.

It is high time the Government displayed a more humanitarian approach towards victims of the recession...

It is high time to consider the problem on a global scale.

44) PHRASE: PHR after v, oft PHR for n, PHR to-inf If you are in time for a particular event, you are not too late for it.

I arrived just in time for my flight to London...

She set the alarm so she'd wake up in time to give her two sons their medication.

45) PHRASE: PHR with cl If you say that something will happen in time or given time, you mean that it will happen eventually, when a lot of time has passed.

He would sort out his own problems, in time...

Tina believed that, given time, her business would become profitable.

46) PHRASE: PHR after v, oft PHR with n If you are playing, singing, or dancing in time with a piece of music, you are following the rhythm and speed of the music correctly. If you are out of time with it, you are not following the rhythm and speed of the music correctly.

Her body swayed in time with the music...

We were standing onstage playing completely out of time.

47) PHRASE: PHR with cl If you say that something will happen, for example, in a week 's time or in two years ' time, you mean that it will happen a week from now or two years from now.

Presidential elections are due to be held in ten days' time...

In a year's time we will all be laughing about it.

48) PHRASE: PHR after v, oft PHR for n If you arrive somewhere in good time, you arrive early so that there is time to spare before a particular event.

If we're out, we always make sure we're home in good time for the programme.

49) PHRASE: PHR after v, PHR as reply If you tell someone that something will happen in good time or all in good time, you are telling them to be patient because it will happen eventually.

There will be many advanced exercises that you won't be able to do at first. You will get to them in good time...

`I can't wait to be grown up.' - `All in good time.'

50) PHRASE: PHR with cl If something happens in no time or in next to no time, it happens almost immediately or very quickly.

He's going to be just fine. At his age he'll heal in no time...

He expects to be out of prison in next to no time.

51) PHRASE: PHR with cl If you do something in your own time, you do it at the speed that you choose, rather than allowing anyone to hurry you.

Now, in your own time, tell me what happened.

52) PHRASE: PHR with cl If you do something such as work in your own time in British English, or on your own time in American English, you do it in your free time rather than, for example, at work or school.

If I choose to work on other projects in my own time, then I say that is my business.

53) PHRASE: V inflects If you keep time when playing or singing music, you follow or play the beat, without going too fast or too slowly.

As he sang he kept time on a small drum.

54) PHRASE: V inflects When you talk about how well a watch or clock keeps time, you are talking about how accurately it measures time.

Some pulsars keep time better than the earth's most accurate clocks.

55) PHRASE: V inflects, oft PHR for n, PHR to-inf If you make time for a particular activity or person, you arrange to have some free time so that you can do the activity or spend time with the person.

Before leaving the city, be sure to make time for a shopping trip...

She had made time for me in the midst of her busy schedule...

I think you should always make time to see your friends.

56) PHRASE: V inflects If you say that you made good time on a journey, you mean it did not take you very long compared to the length of time you expected it to take.

They had left early in the morning, on quiet roads, and made good time.

57) PHRASE: V inflects If someone is making up for lost time, they are doing something actively and with enthusiasm because they have not had the opportunity to do it before or when they were younger.

Five years older than the majority of officers of his same rank, he was determined to make up for lost time.

58) PHRASE: V inflects If you are marking time, you are doing something that is not particularly useful or interesting while you wait for something more important or interesting to happen.

He's really just marking time until he's old enough to leave.

59) PHRASE: PHR with cl If you say that something happens or is the case nine times out of ten or ninety-nine times out of a hundred, you mean that it happens on nearly every occasion or is almost always the case.

When they want something, nine times out of ten they get it...

Ninety-nine times out of a hundred when parents say to their children `I know how you feel', they are lying.

60) PHRASE: n PHR, usu PHR after adj-superl If you say that someone or something is, for example, the best writer of all time, or the most successful film of all time, you mean that they are the best or most successful that there has ever been.

`Monopoly' is one of the best-selling games of all time...

This is my favourite song of all time.

61) PHRASE: v-link PHR, PHR after v If you are on time, you are not late.

Don't worry, she'll be on time...

Their planes usually arrive on time.

62) PHRASE: v-link PHR, oft it v-link PHR before cl If you say that it is only a matter of time or only a question of time before something happens, you mean that it cannot be avoided and will definitely happen at some future date.

It now seems only a matter of time before they resign...

The doctors are confident he'll make a full recovery. It's just a question of time.

63) PHRASE: usu of/in/for PHR When you refer to our time or our times you are referring to the present period in the history of the world.

It would be wrong to say that the Church doesn't enter the great moral debates of our time.

64) PHRASE: V inflects If you do something to pass the time you do it because you have some time available and not because you really want to do it.

Without particular interest and just to pass the time, I read a story...

During a lunch break, he and the buyer passed the time with some chitchat.

65) PHRASE: V inflects, oft PHR with n If you pass the time of day with someone, you have a short friendly conversation with them.

One or two people went up and passed the time of day with her...

They can't even say `good morning' or pass the time of day.

66) PHRASE: V inflects If you play for time, you try to make something happen more slowly, because you do not want it to happen or because you need time to think about what to do if it happens.

The president's decision is being seen as an attempt to play for time.

67) PHRASE: V inflects, oft it PHR to-inf If you say that something will take time, you mean that it will take a long time.

Change will come, but it will take time...

It takes time to build up intimacy.

68) PHRASE: V inflects, oft PHR -ing If you take your time doing something, you do it quite slowly and do not hurry.

`Take your time,' Cross told him. `I'm in no hurry.'...

He took his time answering, knowing that he must select his words with great care.

69) PHRASE: V inflects If a child can tell the time, they are able to find out what the time is by looking at a clock or watch.

My four-year-old daughter cannot quite tell the time.

70) PHRASE: PHR with cl, PHR after v If something happens time after time, it happens in a similar way on many occasions.

Burns had escaped from jail time after time...

Time after time, I hear these stories of missing children on the news.

Syn:

repeatedly

71) PHRASE: V inflects If you say that time flies, you mean that it seems to pass very quickly.

Time flies when you're having fun.

72) PHRASE: Ns inflect, PHR after v, v-link PHR If you have the time of your life, you enjoy yourself very much indeed.

We're taking our little grandchild away with us. We'll make sure he has the time of his life...

For some it was awful, for others, particularly the young, it was the time of their lives.

73) PHRASE: v-link PHR, PHR after v If you say there is no time to lose or no time to be lost, you mean you must hurry as fast as you can to do something.

He rushed home, realising there was no time to lose.

74) PHRASE: oft PHR whether/if If you say that time will tell whether something is true or correct, you mean that it will not be known until some time in the future whether it is true or correct.

Only time will tell whether Broughton's optimism is justified...

I can't see any problems, but time will tell.

75) PHRASE: V inflects, usu PHR in -ing If you waste no time in doing something, you take the opportunity to do it immediately or quickly.

Tom wasted no time in telling me why he had come.

76) time and again → see again

to the end of time → see end

in the fullness of time → see fullness

there's no time like the present → see present

the time is ripe → see ripe