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Time of day (now mainly preserved in negation, i.e. what someone won’t give you if he doesn’t like you) was a popular 17c. salutation (e.g. “Good time of day vnto your Royall Grace,” “Richard III,” I.iii.18). Times as the name of a newspaper dates from 1788. Time warp first attested 1954; time capsule first recorded 1938, in reference to New York World’s Fair; time-traveling in the science fiction sense first recorded 1895 in H.G. Wells’ “The Time Machine.” To do time “serve a prison sentence” is from 1865. Time frame is attested by 1964; time line (also timeline) by 1890; time-limit is from 1880. About time, ironically for “long past due time,” is recorded from 1920. Behind the times “old-fashioned” is recorded from 1846, first attested in Dickens.
Old English getimian “to happen, befall,” from time (n.). Meaning “to appoint a time” (of an action, etc.) is attested from c.1300; sense of “to record the time of” (a race, event, etc.) is first attested 1660s. Related: Timed; timing.
n.
- A duration or relation of events expressed in terms of past, present, and future, and measured in units such as minutes, hours, days, months, or years.
- A certain period during which something is done.
- A continuous, measurable quantity in which events occur in a sequence proceeding from the past through the present to the future. See Note at space-time.
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- An interval separating two points of this quantity; a duration.
- A system or reference frame in which such intervals are measured or such quantities are calculated.
Pass time aimlessly. For example, There was nothing to do, so I sat around killing time until dinner was ready. This idiom was first recorded about 1768.
In addition to the idioms beginning with time
- time after time
- time and a half
- time and tide wait for no man
- time bomb
- time flies
- time hangs heavy
- time immemorial
- time is money
- time is ripe
- time is up
- time of day
- time off
- time of one’s life
- time on one’s hands
- time out
- time out of mind
- time warp
- time was
- time will tell
also see:
- about time
- against the clock (time)
- ahead of one’s time
- ahead of time
- all the time
- at all times
- at one time
- at one time or another
- at the same time
- at this point (in time)
- at times
- beat time
- behind in (time)
- behind the times
- bide one’s time
- big time
- buy time
- call one’s (time one’s) own
- chow down (time)
- crunch time
- do time
- every time one turns around
- for the moment (time being)
- from time to time
- good-time Charlie
- hard time
- have a good time
- high time
- in between times
- in due course (of time)
- in good time
- in no time
- in the fullness of time
- in the nick of time
- in time
- keep time
- keep up (with the times)
- kill time
- less than (no time)
- long time no see
- lose time
- make good time
- make time
- make up for lost time
- many is the (time)
- mark time
- not give someone the time of day
- no time for
- no time like the present
- of one’s life, time
- on borrowed time
- once upon a time
- one by one (at a time)
- on one’s own time
- on time
- pass the time
- play for time
- point in time
- pressed for time
- serve time
- show someone a good time
- small time
- stitch in time
- take one’s time
- take up space (time)
- tell time
- whale of a time