Time sb.

Forms: 1–3 tíma, týma, 2–8 tyme, 4 tim, teme, teyme, 4–6 tym, 6 taym, 2– time. [OE. tíma = ON. tími, wk. masc., time, fit or proper time, (first, etc.) time, good time, prosperity (Da. time, Sw. timme an hour),:—OTeut. *tî-mon-, app. f. a root tî- to stretch, extend (see TIDE sb.) + abstr. suffix -mon, -man (see Kluge, Stammbildungslehre, § 154).]

  I.  = A space or extent of time.

  1.  A limited stretch or space of continued existence, as the interval between two successive events or acts, or the period through which an action, condition, or state continues; a finite portion of ‘time’ (in its infinite sense: see 24), as a long time, a short time, some time, for a time.

  In no time, in less than no time (colloq.), immediately, very quickly or soon. Absolute time: see quot. 1842.

c. 893.  K. Ælfred, Oros., IV. v. § 5. Ymbe ðone timan þe þiss wæs.

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Hom., I. 60. Hit wæs ʓewunelic on ðam timan.

a. 1225.  Leg. Kath., 437. He heold on … long time of þe dei.

c. 1330.  R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 4190. [Caesar] tok his leue … To wende fro þem for longe teymes.

1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. XVIII. 63. And tolde whi þat tempest so longe tyme dured.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Clerk’s T., 386. Nat longe tyme after that this Grisild Was wedded, she a doghter hath ybore.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 494/1. Tyme, idem quod tyyde (P. tyme, whyle, tempus).

1572.  Forrest, Theophilus, 263, in Anglia, VII. By so longe tyme as his busshoppe dyd lyue.

1610.  Shaks., Temp., III. ii. 93. After a little time Ile beate him too.

1662.  Gerbier, Princ., 28. No New Building could stand any time without Proppings.

1662.  Stillingfl., Orig. Sacr., III. iv. § 5. The highest mountains in the World … may be ascended in three dayes time.

1670.  Sir S. Crow, in 12th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. V. 15. [Hangings] that—for a time—will look better to the eye.

1711.  Addison, Spect., No. 37, ¶ 1. It was some time before the Lady came to me.

1762.  Kames, Elem. Crit. (1833), 479. A child perceives an interval, and that interval it learns to call time.

1794.  Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, xxv. Annette … was absent a considerable time.

1843.  Borrow, Bible in Spain, xxix. (1901), 417. Follow me … and I will lead you to Finisterre in no time.

1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., iii. I. 291. The time occupied … was not to exceed fourteen days in one year.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), I. 195. In less than no time you shall bear.

1843.  Brande, Dict. Sci., etc., s.v., Absolute Time is time considered in itself without reference to that portion of duration to which it belongs, however noted or marked.

1868.  Dk. Argyll, in Mem. (1906), II. xlvi. 540. Have we any link connecting time-relative with time-absolute?

  b.  † (a) The space of an hour (for OE. tíd, TIDE sb. 2). Obs. rare. (b) A space of time, generally understood to mean a year. (A literalism of biblical translation.)

  (a)  c. 1320.  Cast. Love, 1403. Riht in to helle he eode, Fourti tymen [v.r. tymes] þer he wes [orig. Quarante ures i demora] Er þat he vp risen ches.

  (b)  1382.  Wyclif, Dan. iv. 13 [16]. The herte of wijlde beest be ȝouen to it, and seuen tymes be chaungid vpon hym. Ibid., xii. 7. Ibid. (1382), Rev. xii. 14. She is fed bi tyme, and tymes, and the half of tyme [v.r. half a tyme].

1535.  Coverdale, ibid. She is noryszhed for a tyme, two tymes, and halffe a tyme. [So in later versions.]

1827.  G. S. Faber, Sacr. Calend. Prophecy (1844), I. 27. Or such numbers, the three times and a half, the 42 months and the 1260 days, are mutually equivalent.

  2.  A particular period indicated or characterized in some way. † That time (obs.), at, for the time, for (the) time being († during), during the period under consideration.

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Hom., II. 340. Hit is awriten be ðam yfelum timan.

a. 1023.  Wulfstan, Hom., ii. (Napier) 19. Æfter þisum fæce ʓewurðan sceall swa eʓeslic tima, swa æfre ær næs. Ibid., xiii. 81. Wa ðam wifum, þe þonne tymað and on þam earmlican timan heora cild fedað.

1154.  O. E. Chron., an. 1137 (Laud MS.). On al þis yuele time heold Martin abbot his abbotrice.

1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. X. 72. Sithen þe pestilence tyme.

1474.  Caxton, Chesse, II. iv. (1883), 53. As the Knyghtes shold kepe y^e peple in tyme of peas.

1486.  Rec. St. Mary at Hill, 2. That the forsaid tenementes & Rent … shall hoolly remayn to the parisshens … for the tyme beyng for euer. Ibid., 15. The Mayre or Wardeyn of the Citee of london for the tyme beyng.

1542.  Udall, Erasm. Apoph., 75 b. He had the best right & title for the tyme duryng, to the shadoe of the Asse.

1680.  Butler, Rem. (1759), I. 114. To pass his Times of Recreation In choice and noble Conversation.

a. 1774.  Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 645. Though the time for them be over, yet time itself is not exhausted.

a. 1864[?].  (attributed to Pres. Lincoln). You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), IV. 233. All times of mental progress are times of confusion.

  3.  A period in the existence or history of the world; an age, an era. In later use more indefinite, esp. in pl.

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Hom., II. 190. Þry timan sind on þyssere worulde: Ante legem, Sub lege, Sub gratia…. Se tima is ‘ær æ’ ʓecweden, þe wæs fram Adam buton æ oð Moysen.

c. 1200.  Trin. Coll. Hom., 3. [Advent] bitocneð þre time. On þe was bi-fore þe olde laȝe, be oðer was on þe holde laȝe, and þe þridde was on þe newe laȝe.

1297.  R. Glouc. (Rolls), 192. Fram þe biginning of þe world to þe time þat now is Seuene ages þer habbeþ ibe as seue times iwis. Þe verste age & time was fram our ferste fader adam To noe.

1483.  Caxton, Chron. (colophon). Here ende the Croniclis of englonde with the frute of timis.

1560.  Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 471. Tully calleth an history the witnes of tymes, and light of veritie.

1638.  Wilkins, New World, xiv. (1707), 125. Rondoletius, to whose Diligence these later Times are much beholden.

1686.  W. Hopkins, trans. Ratramnus, Dissert. iii. (1688), 59. The Southern Parts of France, where the Albigenses and Waldenses … have abounded in all Times ever since.

1734.  trans. Rollin’s Anc. Hist. (1827), I. 120. Lay aside the prejudice of birth, nations and times.

1861.  M. Pattison, Ess. (1889), I. 39. With Northern Gerinany our connexion was, from the earliest times, most intimate.

1884.  W. C. Smith, Kildrostan, 86. It is a folly, man, A superstition of these modern times.

  b.  Time(s past, past time(s; old, olden, or ancient time(s, etc.

a. 1067.  in Kemble, Cod. Dipl., IV. 202. Swa he on ældum timum ʓelæʓd wæs.

1340.  Hampole, Pr. Consc., 796. He loves men þat in ald tyme has bene.

14[?].  Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 564/26. Antiquitus, yn olde tyme.

c. 1470.  Henry, Wallace, I. 6. It has beyne seyne in thir tymys bywent.

1474.  Caxton, Chesse, III. ii. (1883), 88. In tyme passid the philosophres dyde the same.

1549.  Compl. Scot., xi. 88. Thai sal intend veir contrar ȝour maister … as there forbears did in alld tymis.

1605.  [see OLDEN a. 1].

1610.  Holland, Camden’s Brit. (1637), 259. A towne in ancient time of great fame. Ibid. It was fortified in times past with a castle.

1611.  Cotgr. s.v. Argent, In good old times when men were loath to publish their owne goodnesse.

1784.  Cowper, Task, VI. 715. Encomium in old time was poet’s work.

1845.  M. Pattison, Ess. (1889), I. 11. The memory of the great and the saintly of ancient time.

  c.  Time(s to come, († time coming), times to be (arch.), future time; esp. future ages, the future.

c. 1340.  Hampole, Prose Tr., i. 4. Þay sall joye nowe … and in tym to come.

1376.  in Eng. Gilds (1870), 53. Hopyng in tyme comyng to haue ben encresyd.

c. 1440.  Alphabet of Tales, 107. Þe paynys þat er ordand … for syn in tyme to com.

1578.  Reg. Privy Council Scot., III. 36. That na pensionis of victuall be gevin in tyme cuming furth of the said superplus.

1891.  Ld. Coleridge, in Law Times Rep., LXV. 581/1. It may become necessary to decide this point in time to come; it is not now.

  d.  The time (the times): the age now or then present. Cf. the day, the hour, the moment.

[1588.  Shaks., L. L. L., V. ii. 791. Rated them … As bumbast and as lining to the time] Ibid. (1596), Merch. V., II. ix. 48. How much honor Pickt from the chaffe and ruine of the times, To be new varnisht.

1640[?].  New Serm. of Newest Fashion (1877), 45. Hee is the onelie man of the time, hee is the onelie able man.

a. 1704.  T. Brown, Two Oxf. Scholars, Wks. 1730, I. 3. Cannot I … sigh for the Iniquities of the Times?

1850.  Tennyson, In Mem., cvi. 18. Ring out the want, the care, the sin, The faithless coldness of the times.

1869.  Freeman, Norm. Conq., III. xi. 55. An act which ran counter to the religious feelings of the time.

  4.  With possessive or of: The period contemporary with the life, occupancy, or activity of some one; (his) age, era, or generation. Often pl. = DAY sb. 14.

992–3.  Laws Edgar, Suppl. B., Leges sæculares c. 2. On minum timan, swa … on mines fæder.

1154.  O. E. Chron., an. 1135 (Laud MS.). On þis kinges time wes al unfrið & yfel.

c. 1200.  Ormin, 14429. Fra þatt tatt Adam shapenn wass Anan till Nowess time.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 10. Non in his tim was like.

c. 1380.  Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. I. 27. Phariseis … weren religiouse in Cristis tyme.

1484.  Caxton, Fables of Poge, v. Poge of Florence recyteth how in his tyme one named Hugh prynce of the medycyns sawe a catte whiche had two hedes.

1552.  Bk. Com. Prayer, Ordin., Pref. From the Apostles tyme there hathe bene these ordres of Ministers.

1625.  Bacon, Ess., Riches (Arb.), 235. A Nobleman … that had the greatest Audits, of any Man in my Time.

1712.  Steele, Spect., No. 497, ¶ 2. In the time of Don Sebastian of Portugal.

1814.  Wordsw., White Doe, I. 42. In great Eliza’s golden time.

1832.  Tennyson, Dream Fair Women, ii. The spacious times of great Elizabeth.

1865.  Dickens, Mut. Fr., I. i. In these times of ours.

  5.  A period considered with reference to its prevailing conditions; the general state of affairs at a particular period. Chiefly pl.

  Often in colloq. phrases, as as times go (= as things go in these times), behind the times (= behind the modes or methods of these times).

1484.  Caxton, Fables of Æsop, II. viii. Men say comynly that after that the tyme goth, so must folke go.

1602.  Shaks., Ham., I. v. 188. The time is out of ioynt.

1712.  Steele, Spect., No. 298, ¶ 3. Persons, of tolerable Figure too as Times go.

1757.  Franklin, Ess., Wks. 1840, II. 96. We may make these times better, if we bestir ourselves.

1837.  J. H. Newman, Par. Serm. (ed. 2), III. xii. 178. When times grew cold and unbelieving.

1881.  Froude, Short Stud., IV. II. i. 163. How times had changed in the last forty years.

Mod.  We live in perilous times.

  b.  pl. Used as the name of a newspaper.

1788.  (title) The Times.

1801.  G. Rose, Diaries (1860), I. 439. I found here the Times of Saturday.

1829.  (title) South Wales Times.

1854.  Hawthorne, Eng. Note-Bks. (1883), I. 477. Every Englishman runs to ‘The Times’ with his little grievance.

Mod.  There is an obituary notice in the Oxford Times.

  6.  A period considered with reference to one’s personal experience; hence, an experience of a specified nature lasting some time; esp. in (to have) a (good, bad, etc.) time (of it); to make a time, i.e., a demonstration, fuss (U.S. colloq.).

  To have a good time (= a time of enjoyment) was common in Eng. from c. 1520 to c. 1688; it was app. retained in America, whence readopted in Britain in 19th c. (See also GOOD a. 10 d.) So to have the time of one’s life, i.e., the best one has ever had.

a. 1529.  Skelton, Bk. 3 Foles, Wks. 1843, I. 200. For to haue good tyme and to lyue meryly.

1647.  Trapp, Comm. Ep., 59. They would have a fine time of it. Ibid., 199. Those poor … souls … have an ill time of it.

1666.  Pepys, Diary, 7 March. I went and had as good a time as heart could wish.

1673.  S’ too him Bayes, 26. It seems his servants had a good time on’t.

1709.  Mrs. Manley, Secret Mem. (1736), I. 97. Berintha … thought she should have a melancholy Time of it.

1836.  Mrs. Stowe, in Life (1889), 81. I wish I were a man in your place—if I wouldn’t have a grand time!

1856.  Olmsted, Slave States, 82. I was having a very good time with her, when her father came in and told her she was ‘troubling the gentleman.’

1886.  P. S. Robinson, Valley Teet. Trees, iii. We’ll have a high old time together.

1902.  Eliz. L. Banks, Newspaper Girl, i. Think of that when you are tempted to have a good time instead of studying hard.

  7.  Period of duration; prescribed or allotted term. a. Period of existence or action; period of one’s life, life-time.

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Hom., I. 4. His tima ne bið na langsum; forþan þe Godes grama hine fordeð.

c. 1200.  Vices & Virtues, 39. Behoueþ to charite on alle ðines liues time.

c. 1400.  Brut, cxxxv. 142. Þo seisede Kyng Henry al Normandye into his hand, & helde hit al his lifes tyme.

1535.  Coverdale, Ps. cii[i]. 15. That a man in his tyme is but as is grasse.

1549.  Compl. Scot., i. 21. Of this sort euere thyng hes ane tyme.

1577.  in Exch. Rolls Scotl. (1899), XX. 373. In the resyngnatioun, to hymself [and] his wyf, for their tym.

1600.  Shaks., A. Y. L., II. vii. 142. One man in his time playes many parts.

1657.  Thornley, trans. Longus’ Daphnis & Chloe, 55. I am older then Saturn, and the whole time of this Universe.

1833.  Carlyle, Ess., Cagliostro, ii. The foul sluggard’s comfort: ‘It will last my time.’—It will last thy time, thy worthless sham of an existence.

  b.  spec. (a) The period of gestation. (b) The menstrual period; transf. menstruation. (c) (One’s) term of apprenticeship. (d) The duration of a term of imprisonment; usually in phrase to do time (slang). (e) An unexpired period of compulsory service (U.S.). (f) The prescribed duration of the interval between two rounds in boxing, or of a round or game in athletics, football, etc., or the moment at which this begins or ends; also ellipt. as the signal to begin or end a bout, as in to call time. (g) The periodic time of a heavenly body: see PERIODIC a. 1.

  (a)  c. 1000.  Ælfric, Hom., I. 30. Hire tima was ʓefylled, ðæt heo cennan sceolde.

1577.  B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., III. (1586), 127. A cowe and a quene haue both one time.

1809.  Malkin, Gil Blas, XI. i. (Rtldg.), 392. Beatrice’s time was up first: she was safely delivered of a daughter.

  (b)  1564–78.  Bulleyn, Dial. agst. Pest. (1888), 41. Certaine people maie not bleede, as women whiche haue their times aboundauntlie.

1704.  Collect. Voy. (Churchill), III. 582/1. Women, who shall not be subject to the monthly times.

1889.  [see MONTHLY a. 1 b].

  (c)  c. 1645.  Howell, Lett. (1650), I. 227. To be both of one trade, because when they are out of their time they may join stocks together.

1718.  Free-thinker, No. 21, ¶ 1. The … Indiscretion of Apprentices Marrying Servant-Wenches, before their Time is expired.

1808.  Byron, Eng. Bards, 63. A man must serve his time to every trade, Save censure—critics all are ready made.

  (d)  1865.  [see DO v. 11 i].

1888.  ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Robbery under Arms, xli. People can’t be expected to associate with men that have ‘done time.’

1904.  Griffiths, 50 Years Publ. Service, xiii. 185. He did his ‘time’ without protest.

  (e)  1769.  Boston Gaz. (U.S.), 20 Nov. (Thornton, Amer. Gloss.). To be sold for five Years, The Time of a hearty young Man, who is a good Sailor.

1843.  Missouri Reporter (U.S.) 28 Jan. (ibid.). I have for sale a very likely yellow woman, about 24 years of age…. She has between five and six years to serve. The balance of her time will be sold very low.

  (f)  1812.  Sporting Mag., XXXIX. 102. George was the first to call ‘time.’

1821.  Egan, Boxiana (1829), III. 571. When time was called, the men were to be immediately brought up to the scratch.

1832.  Marryat, N. Forster, xlvii. It’s a finisher—can’t come to time.

1840.  Dickens, Barn. Rudge, xxii. In prize-fighting phraseology, [he] always came up to time with a cheerful countenance.

1857.  Hughes, Tom Brown, i. Three whiffs of which would knock any one else out of time [see KNOCK v. 12 d].

  8.  The length of time sufficient, necessary, or desired for some purpose; also, time available for employment; leisure or spare time.

c. 1220.  Bestiary, 256. Ðus ȝe tileð ðar wiles ȝe time haueð.

c. 1470.  Henry, Wallace, VIII. 502. No teyme we haiff off segyng now to bid.

1585.  T. Washington, trans. Nicholay’s Voy., I. xv. 16 b. There was yet time inough to pleasure them.

1689.  Tryal Bps., 34. These Gentlemen have had time enough to have prepared Precedents.

1723.  Pres. St. Russia, II. 325. In case the Russian Troops should get time of rallying.

1743.  Bulkeley & Cummins, Voy. S. Seas, 88. He must have Time to consider of it.

1796.  Mme. D’Arblay, Camilla, II. 23. Pray take your own time. I am not in any haste.

1833.  T. Hook, Parson’s Dau., III. ii. Being pressed greatly for time, in order to get back to London.

1865.  Ruskin, Sesame, ii. § 62. I could multiply witness upon witness … if I had time.

  b.  The (shortest) period in which a given course of action is completed.

1894.  Times, 19 Nov., 7/3. Various new tandem times were made by the winners.

1899.  F. V. Kirby, Sport E. C. Africa, v. 61. One of them [the boys] came in sight, making excellent time towards the nearest tree, with the wounded cow in close pursuit.

1908.  Daily Chron., 15 Jan., 7/5. The times … did not compare with those established by the amateurs the day before. Still some wonderful times were put up.

  9.  spec. The amount of time worked under a specific contract; hence, in workmen’s speech, pay equivalent to the period worked; also an account or certificate showing the days, hours, etc., worked, and wages due: usually called back time.

1795.  Nelson, in Nicolas, Disp. (1845), II. 116. This time as Mid is absolutely necessary as a part of the long six years. You had better get out his Time from the Navy Office.

1888.  Times, 29 Sept., 6/6. The men asked to be paid [for overtime] at the rate of time and a half, but the Masters refused a greater rate than time and a quarter.

1908.  Somerset Mag., April, 564. Tim added ‘And I’d like my time.’ Time, in the cattle idiom, meant back pay up to date.

Mod.  If you can’t move a bit quicker, I’ll send you to get your back time.

  10.  Anc. Prosody. A unit or group of units in metrical measurement. Also transf. in Mus.

  A single, primary, or least time is the duration of utterance of a short syllable; = MORA¹ 3; a double or compound time is composed of two or more single times.

[c. 1050.  Byrhtferth’s Handboc, in Anglia, VIII. 314. Ðæt riht meter vers sceal habban feower and twentiʓ timan. Ibid. Dactilus stent on anum langum timan and twam sceortum and spondeus stent of feowrum langum.]

1589.  Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, II. xii. (Arb.), 132. A new inuention of feete and times.

1686.  New Method to Learn to Sing, 50. In this Example, you have two Staves of Lines; in the upper are Semibreves, each of which is a Time, and fills up a Bar.

1727–41.  Chambers, Cycl., s.v., Some call each half of the measure in common time, a time.

1749.  J. Mason, Numbers in Poet. Comp., 8. The Measure of a single Time is the Space in which we commonly pronounce any of the Liquids or Consonants, preceded by a Vowel, e.g. an, of, it, in.

1832.  Encycl. Amer., XI. 591. The short syllable … is considered as the original unit for the measure of time in the rhythm, and is called a time, or mora.

  11.  Mil. The rate of marching, calculated on the number of paces taken per minute. Double time, slow time: see the adjs.; see also QUICK TIME.

1802–76.  [see QUICK TIME].

1853.  Stocqueler, Milit. Encycl., s.v. Pace, In quick time, 108 paces, or 270 feet, are taken in a minute; and in slow time, seventy-five paces, or 187 feet. In double time, 150 paces of thirty-six inches, making 450 [feet] in a minute.

1859.  Field Exerc. Infantry, 21. The time having been given on a drum, on the word March, the squad will move off.

  12.  Music. a. † The duration of the breve in relation to the semibreve; cf. MOOD sb.² 3 a, PROLATION 2 (obs.); hence, the rhythm or measure of a piece of music, now marked by division of the music into bars, and usually denoted by a fraction expressing the number of aliquot parts of a semibreve in each bar (time-signature). To beat time: see BEAT v.¹ 32. In time, out of time, in or out of correct rhythm. † Perfect, imperfect time: see PERFECT a. 10, IMPERFECT a. 7.

1531.  Elyot, Gov., I. xxi. The associatinge of man and woman in daunsing, they bothe obseruinge one nombre and tyme in their meuynges.

1609.  C. Butler, Fem. Mon., V. (1623), K iij. Now and then she beginneth in duple time some two or three Semibriefes.

1706.  A. Bedford, Temple Mus., iii. 62. ’Tis … in the same Time and Tune.

1710.  Addison, Tatler, No. 153, ¶ 14. To play out of Time.

1854.  Helmore, Pract. Lect. Church Music, 6. It is sometimes said … that in Plain Song ‘there is no time.’

1884.  Rockstro, in Grove, Dict. Mus., IV. 117/2. In modern Music, the word Time is applied to rhythmic combinations of all kinds, mostly indicated by fractions, (³/₈ etc.) referring to the aliquot parts of a Semibreve—the norm by which the duration of all other notes is and always has been regulated.

1893.  Stevenson, Catriona, i. 4. A … brisk tramp of feet in time and clash of steel.

  b.  The rate at which a piece is performed; the tempo; hence, the characteristic tempo, rhythm, form, and style of a particular class of compositions (usually in combination, as dance-time, march-time, waltz-time).

[1446.  Lydg., Two Nightingale Poems, i. 80. But, doun descendyng, she said in hasti tyme: ‘My lyfe be kynde endure shall not longe.’

1602.  Middleton, Blurt, III. i. E j. To keep quick time unto the owl.]

1887.  Baring-Gould, Gaverocks, xiii. Little feet beat the dance time on the … floor.

1903.  Critic, XLIII. 361/1. Rag-time music, which interprets that divine art only for vulgar heels and toes.

Mod.  A movement in slow time.

  c.  The time-value or duration of a note. (Not in technical use.)

1727–41.  Chambers, Cycl., s.v., Where the time or duration of the notes is equal, the differences of tune alone are capable to entertain us.

1776.  Burney, Hist. Mus. (1789), I. vi. 63. The most common application of this term [Rhythm] has been to express the Time or duration of many sounds heard in succession.

  II.  = Time when: a point of time; a space of time treated without reference to its duration.

  The ‘point’ may be an instant (as the time when a star crosses the meridian), or it may have some duration (as the time for sowing), but the question of its length is not considered, only the question when it occurs (i.e., where it is situated in the period), and its distinctive qualification.

  13.  A point in the course of time or of a period: = TIDE sb. 3; spec. in early ME., the hour of the day; = OE. tíd: see TIDE sb. 4. In mod.Eng. What is the time? i.e., the hour and minute as shown by the clock. What time, at what time, = when, (at) the time that: see WHAT.

c. 1200.  Ormin, 12745. Þatt time … Wass rihht swa summ itt off þatt daȝȝ Þe tende time wære.

a. 1225.  St. Marher., 8. As þah hit were þe seoueðe time of þe dei.

c. 1391.  Chaucer, Astrol., II. § 3. To knowe … euery tyme of the nyht by the sterres fixe.

1764.  Gray, Candidate, 10. At our time of life ’twould be silly, my dear.

1823.  J. Badcock, Dom. Amusem., 162. By the light you shall catch a few words in the book, or the time on the watch.

1834.  Nat. Philos., III. Astron., i. 35/1 (Usef. Knowl. Soc.). The difference between the actual time of the sun’s being on the meridian and the beginning of the mean solar day.

1908.  R. Bagot, A. Cuthbert, viii. Find out what time the marchesa intends to breakfast.

  b.  A point or fixed part of the year, a season, as in time of year; in comb. in spring-time, summer-time, autumn-time, winter-time; also term-time, vacation-time, holiday-time, etc.; also, of a day, as time of day, time of night, day-time, night-time, morning-time, evening-time; also dinner-time, bed-time, etc.; also, a point in the moon’s age.

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Num. xiii. 21. Hit was ða se tima ðæt winberian ripodon.

c. 1050.  Byrhtferth’s Handboc, in Anglia, VIII. 312. Feower timan beoþ…. Uer ys lengten tima,… se oðer tima hatte æstas … Se þridda tima ys autumnus on lyden ʓecweden.

c. 1175.  Lamb. Hom., 119. Vre drihtnes halie passiun … is nu icumen in,… þe ure drihten þolede for us on þisse timan.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., IX. iii. (Bodl. MS.). Þe ȝere of þe sonne … conteyneþ foure tymes, winter, springingtyme, somer, and harueste.

c. 1400.  trans. Secreta Secret., Gov. Lordsh., 74. Heruest bygynnes … and lastys lxxxviij dayes…. In þis tyme ys also þe day and þe nyght euyne.

a. 1529.  Skelton, On Tyme, 23. The rotys tak theyr sap in tyme of vere.

1566.  Blundevil, Horsemanship, IV. xxxii. (1580), 16. The horse that hath this disease, is blind at certaine times of the Moone.

1825.  T. Hook, Sayings, Ser. II. Passion & Princ., ix. III. 153. Fleeting showers of rain, unseasonable at the time of year.

  † c.  A season or part of the year considered with reference to the weather experienced; weather (of some kind). Obs. rare. (Cf. F. temps in similar sense.)

c. 1400.  trans. Secreta Secret., Gov. Lordsh., 93. Þe right of hym þat reygnyth ys more profitable to subgitz þan plente of good tyme. Ibid. (1422), Priv. Priv., 220. The colerike by kynde … sholde haue a stomake good y-nowe, namely in colde tyme.

  14.  A point in duration marking or marked by some event or condition; a point of time at which something happens, an occasion. † On a time, on one occasion, once. At no time, on no occasion.

c. 893.  K. Ælfred, Oros., IV. v. § 5. Ymbe ðone timan þe þiss wæs.

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Hom., I. 78. Herodes … ʓeornlice hi befran to hwilces timan se steorra him ærst æteowode.

a. 1050.  O. E. Chron., an. 1009 (Laud MS.). On þisum ilcan timan oððe litle ær þet [etc.].

c. 1205.  Lay., 2582. Seoððen him a time com mid teonen he wes i-funden. Ibid. (c. 1275). Suþþe him com a time þat he to wode wende.

a. 1225.  Leg. Kath., 2. Constantin & Maxence weren, on ane time … hehest in Rome.

13[?].  Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 2243. At þis tyme twelmonyth þou toke þat þe falled.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Frankl. T., 830. Aurelius … Curseth the tyme þat euere he was born.

1470–85.  Malory, Arthur, II. i. 75. Soo it befelle on a tyme whanne kyng Arthur was at London.

1538.  Starkey, Lett., in England, p. lxxiii. Long and much at sundry tymis.

1590.  Sir J. Smyth, Disc. Weapons, 36. From that time forward he would hold the Bowe to be the onelie weapon of the world.

1766.  Goldsm., Vic. W., xii. By this time the unfortunate Moses was undeceived.

1837.  J. H. Newman, Par. Serm. (ed. 3), I. vii. 99. Surely man is at all times the same being.

1845.  M. Pattison, Ess. (1889), I. 27. This … trick escaped detection at the time.

1873.  Black, Pr. Thule, xxv. It will be nearly two by the time you get down.

  15.  The appointed, due, or proper time.

c. 897.  K. Ælfred, Gregory’s Past. C., lxiii. 459. Nu us is tima ðæt we onwæcnen of slæpe.

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Colloq., in Wr.-Wülcker, 102/1. Hwænne wylle ʓe syngan?… Þonne hyt tima byþ [Quando tempus erit].

1154.  O. E. Chron., an. 1011. Mann nolde him to timan [MS. C. atiman] gafol bedan.

c. 1175.  Lamb. Hom., 103. Þeo ðeo þet mon et er timan and drinceð.

13[?].  Cursor M., 11814 (Cott.). Nu neghes tim to tak his lai.

c. 1400.  26 Pol. Poems, xxv. 539. Tyme ys that men now for me pray, For Parce michi, domine!

c. 1412.  Hoccleve, De Reg. Princ., 1274. Sires, it is tyme þat we hennes hye.

c. 1489.  Caxton, Blanchardyn, xxiii. 74. It was gyme to go to bed.

a. 1586.  Sidney, Ps. XII. i. Lord, helpe, it is hyghe tyme for me to call.

1741–2.  Gray, Agrippina, 158. ’Tis time to go, the sun is high advanc’d.

1809.  Malkin, Gil Blas, VIII. i. My business consisted in … dunning the farmers, and keeping them to time in their payments.

1872.  Routledge’s Ev. Boy’s Ann., 349/1. See that you are up to time.

  b.  Qualified by poss. pron., as his, her, its; often ellipt. for time of death, of childbirth, etc.; before (his, etc.) time, prematurely.

c. 1000.  Ags. Gosp., Matt. xxvi. 18. Min tima is ʓe-hende. Ibid., John v. 4. Drihtenes engel com to his timan [Hatton to hys tyme] on þone mere & þæt wæter wæs astyred.

1388.  Wyclif, Prov. xxv. 11. A goldun pomel in beddis of siluer is he, that spekith a word in his [= its] time.

c. 1440.  Alphab. Tales, 11. Sho wex grete & drew nere hur tyme.

1560.  Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 451 b. Y^e Quene … was with childe, and nere her time.

1689.  Hickeringill, Ceremony-monger, 126. A young Lady … Excommunicated for breaking her Leg or coming before her time.

1700.  Dryden, Sigism. & Guiscard., 26. In the prime Of youth, her lord expired before his time.

1799.  Wordsw., Lucy Gray, viii. The storm came on before its time.

1853.  C. Brontë, Villette, 180. ‘Ten minutes behind his time,’ said she.

1890.  Field, 31 May, 799/3. The Banksia roses … are bent on coming out before their time.

  16.  A or the favorable, convenient, or fitting point of time for doing something; the right moment or occasion; opportunity. (Often with his, her, etc.)

c. 897.  K. Ælfred, Gregory’s Past. C., xxxiii. 220. Se wisa hilt his spræce & bitt timan.

1297.  R. Glouc. (Rolls), 7633. Huld hem euere in Scotlond, & poer to hem nome, To worri vpe king willam, wanne god time come.

1382.  Wyclif, Eccles. iii. 4. Time of weping, and time of laȝhing [1388 Tyme to wepe, and tyme to leiȝe].

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Melib., ¶ 14. Whan she saugh hir tyme, she seyde hym in this wise: ‘Allas! my lord.’

a. 1533.  Ld. Berners, Huon, lxvii. 230. When he sawe his tyme, he cryed his worde & token.

1590.  Nashe, Pasquil’s Apol., I. Wks. (Grosart), I. 233. There is a time for speech, and a time for silence.

c. 1610.  Bodley, in Reliq. (1703), 108. A Clock and a Bell will be needful for the Library…: but every thing must have his time.

1709.  Steele, Tatler, No. 36, ¶ 4. When Stocks are lowest, it is the Time to buy.

a. 1722.  Fountainhall, Decis. (1759), I. 9. They must wait their tour, since the devil bides his time.

1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., iv. I. 512. An adversary of no common prowess was watching his time.

Mod.  Now’s your time!

  17.  Any one of the occasions on which something is done or happens; each occasion of a recurring action. Often qualified by a numeral. (= OE. síð: see SITHE sb.¹ 4–5.)

  For † one time, † two times have been substituted once, twice. At a time, at one time, at once, simultaneously.

c. 1300.  St. Julian, 108 (Ashm. MS.). Let me go at þis one tyme. I ne schal neuereft derie þe.

c. 1380.  Wyclif, Sel. Wks., III. 350. How þat men shulde snybbe þer breþeren bi þre tymes.

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 8272. The next tym þou noyes me, þou neghis to þe fer.

1454.  Rolls of Parlt., V. 241/1. At too tymes hath be made requestes to the seid Lieutenaunt.

1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 300 b. How he wolde deny the thre tymes that nyght.

1560.  Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 441 b. The third way … hath bene diuers times assaied.

1611.  Bible, John xxi. 16. He saith to him againe the second time, Simon Sonne of Ionas, louest thou me?

1660.  R. Ellsworth, in Extr. S. P. rel. Friends, II. (1911), 122. Heere they … haue their Meeteings at all Seasons … sometymes about 1000 or 1200 att a tyme.

1712.  Steele, Spect., No. 422, ¶ 1. An utter Aversion to speaking to more than one Man at a time.

1829.  Landor, Imag. Conv., Villèle & Corbière, I. 123. He did it fifty times, at the very least.

1876.  Trevelyan, Macaulay, II. ix. 125. The publishers … are still pouring forth reprints by many thousands at a time.

  b.  Agric. (See quots.) dial.

1813.  R. Kerr, Agric. Surv. Berw., 198. The completest harrowing is called a double double time; in which the harrow goes four times successively over the same range.

1857.  N. & Q., 2nd Ser. IV. 80/1. ‘A time’ … in some parts of Scotland is the act of once furrowing between two ploughings.

1894.  Northumbld. Gloss., Time, the journey once across a field in agriculture. Time-aboot, a double journey in field work, extending from heedrig to heedrig and back again.

  18.  Many a time, † many time, many times, elliptically times, also times and often, times without number, many a time and oft (often): on many occasions, in many instances; often, frequently.

c. 1250.  Kent. Serm., in O. E. Misc., 30. Ure lord god almichti … habbeþ mani-time maked of watere wyn gostliche.

1375.  Barbour, Bruce, I. 336. That may mony tyme awaill.

c. 1400.  Rom. Rose, 6974. I am gladly executour And many tymes a procuratour.

1535.  Coverdale, Ps. lxxvii. 38. Many a tyme turned he his wrath awaye.

1560.  Ingelend, Disob. Child, D ij b. Many a tyme and oft, I am fayne To playe the Priest, Clarke, and all.

1590.  Sir J. Smyth, Disc. Weapons, Ded. 6. Which I haue heard manie, and manie times publikelie reported by manie valiant Gentlemen.

1622.  R. Hawkins, Voy. S. Sea (Hakl. Soc.), 115. Which … many time is cause of dissention.

1701.  De Foe, True-born Eng., II. 312. Englishmen have done it many a time.

1760–72.  H. Brooke, Fool of Qual. (1809), IV. 51. Many a time and oft … you carried me in your arms.

1808.  Eleanor Sleath, Bristol Heiress, III. 94. The fine handsome young officer, who has been here times and often.

18[?].  G. Meredith, Juggling Jerry, ii. We’ve travelled times to this old common.

1892.  Law Times, XCII. 147/1. Times without number the courts in bankruptcy have been called upon to decide the question.

1899.  Trine, In Tune with Infinite (1903), 186. Those who take great pride in speaking of their own practicality are many times the least practical.

  19.  Preceded by a cardinal numeral and followed by a number or expression of quantity: used to express the multiplication of the number, etc.

c. 1380.  Wyclif, Sel. Wks., II. 309. As foure tymes sixe maken þis noumbre.

c. 1425.  Crafte Nombrynge, 2. Ten tymes twene is twenty. Ibid., 4. If it stonde in the secunde place of þe rewle, he betokens ten tymes hym selfe, as þis figure 2 here.

c. 1440.  Jacob’s Well, 45. Thre tymes ten is thretty.

1726.  Swift, Gulliver, II. iii. An animal of ten times my strength.

1798.  Coleridge, Anc. Mar., III. xvi. Four times fifty living men.

1868.  G. Duff, Pol. Surv., 48. His territories in Asia … are more than twenty-one times the size of Scotland.

  b.  Also followed by an adj. or adv. in the comparative degree, or in the positive by as (formerly so) with an adj. or adv., expressing comparison.

1551.  Crowley, Pleas. & Pain, 229. This might you reade, and ten tymes more In the Bible.

c. 1567.  Stow, in Surv. (1908), I. p. li. Fabyan … was a very nowghty cronycle, and Copin … was x. tymes worse.

1583.  Stubbes, Anat. Abus., II. (1882), 45. They shall pay tenne times so much as it is worth.

1644.  Nye, Gunnery, I. 5. Which composition I will call 6 ·· 1 ·· 1, meaning six times so much Peter [nitre], as one time Sulpher, and one time Cole.

1712.  Addison, Spect., No. 415, ¶ 8. A Gothick Cathedral tho’ it be five times larger than the other.

1876.  Gladstone, Glean. (1879), II. 289. Men who had ten or twenty times less to remember.

Mod.  We have five times as many as we can use.

  † 20.  Gram. = TENSE sb. 2. Obs.

1530.  Palsgr., Introd., 32. In these syxe modes be dyvers tymes. Ibid., 84. Tenses or tymes they have in every of these modes.

c. 1620.  A. Hume, Brit. Tongue (1865), 31. Tyme is an affection of the verb noating the differences of tyme, and is either present, past, or to cum.

  21.  Fencing. See quots., and cf. time-attack, time-thrust in 52.

1727–41.  Chambers, Cycl., s.v., Time in fencing.—There are three kinds of time; that of the sword, that of the foot, and that of the whole body. All the times that are perceived out of their measure, are only to be considered as appeals, or feints, to deceive and amuse the enemy. Ibid. (1753), Supp., s.v. Binding, Binding is a method of pursuit more safe and certain … than taking of time.

1809.  Roland, Fencing, vii. § 1. To take the time, is making your thrust by a judicious discernment on the motion of your adversary.

  22.  Manège. (= F. temps.) Applied to each completed motion or action.

1753.  Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v., Time, in the manege, is sometimes taken for the motion of a horse, that observes measure and justness in performing a manege. In the manege of a step and a leap, the horse makes by turns a corvet between two caprioles; and in that case the corvet is one Time that prepares the horse for the caprioles. Ibid. A good horseman disposes his horse for the effects of the heel, by beginning with one Time of the legs, and never runs precipitately upon his Times.

  23.  pl. Originally (in sense 15), The fixed hours of the day at which an omnibus started from its various stations; hence, the established business enterprise of running an omnibus on a given route at such times, and the ‘good-will’ thus created by the owners of public service vehicles over particular routes, as a recognized vendible asset.

1863.  E. Yates, Business of Pleasure (1865), I. 40. They [the London General Omnibus Company] possessed themselves of the ‘times’ of all the important routes in London and the suburbs. These ‘times’ are, in fact, the good will of the roads, and were considered so valuable, that in some cases as much as from £200 to £250 were given for the ‘times’ of one omnibus.

1906.  Westm. Gaz., 15 May, 2/3. Emphasis [is] laid in one of the various motor-’bus prospectuses, just now … upon the value of the ‘times’ owned by each member of the associated companies. Ibid. The ‘times,’ which are a special privilege, religiously guarded by the omnibus fraternity,… were also made over as a part of the bargain.

  III.  In generalized sense.

  24.  Indefinite continuous duration regarded as that in which the sequence of events takes place.

  a.  Attempts to define or explain.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., IX. ii. (Bodl. MS.). Tyme is mesure of chaungeable þinges, as Aristotel seith.

1597.  Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. lxix. § 2. Now as Nature bringeth forth Time with Motion, so wee by Motion haue learned how to diuide Time, and by the smaller parts of Time, both to measure the greater, and to know how long all things else indure. Ibid. Some haue defined time to be the measure of the motion of heauen.

1690.  Locke, Hum. Und., II. xiv. § 17. This Consideration of Duration, as set out by certain Periods, and marked by certain Measures or Epochs, is that, I think, which most properly we call Time.

1854.  Calderwood, Philos. Infinite, v. 88. Add event to event, still Time is recognised as stretching forth, and still there is room for more.

1862.  Spencer, First Princ., II. iii. § 47 (1875), 163. The abstract of all sequence is Time.

  b.  Examples of this use of the word.

1480.  Robt. Devyll, 121, in Hazl., E. P. P., I. 224. The tyme drewe so, that nyne monethes was past.

1539.  Taverner, Erasm. Prov. (1552), 38. There is no displeasure so greate, no hatred so impotent, no sorow so immoderate, but tyme aswageth it.

1638.  Junius, Paint. Ancients, 29. In processe of time.

1651.  Hobbes, Leviath., II. xxx. 176. Time, and Industry, produce every day new Knowledge.

1743.  Blair, Grave, 479. Think we, or think we not, Time hurries on With a resistless, unremitting Stream.

1748.  B. Franklin, Adv. Yng. Tradesman, Wks. 1799, II. 34. Remember that time is money.

1794.  Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, xxx. The few gray locks which time had spared on his temples.

1821.  Byron, Cain, III. i. The mind then hath capacity of time, And measures it by that which it beholds, Pleasing or painful.

1908.  Programme of Modernism, 169. We have cast the seed in the furrow, Time will do the rest.

  25.  Personified as an aged man, bald, but having a forelock, and carrying a scythe and an hour-glass. Also called Father Time. To take Time by the forelock († by the top), to seize one’s opportunity, to act promptly: see also FORELOCK sb.² 2.

1509.  Hawes, Past. Pleas., XLIV. (1555), C iv. Sodainly came Time in breuiacion Whose similitude, I shall anone expresse Aged he was, with a bearde doubtles Of swalowes feaders.

1590.  Shaks., Com. Err., II. ii. 71. The plaine bald pate of Father time himselfe. Ibid. (1606), Tr. & Cr., III. ii. 145. Time hath, my Lord, a wallet at his backe, Wherein he puts almes for obliuion.

1594.  [see FORELOCK sb.² 2].

[1711.  Addison, Spect., No. 63, ¶ 4. Equipped (like the figure of Time) with an Hour-glass in one Hand, and a Scythe in the other.]

1767.  T. S., in Public Advertiser, 11 Feb., 2/1.

1820.  W. Irving, Sketch Bk., II. 24. Time is ever silently turning over his pages.

18[?].  Marsden, What is Time? 32. I ask’d old Father Time himself at last; But in a moment he flew swiftly past!

  26.  In restricted sense, Duration conceived as beginning and ending with the present life or material universe; finite duration as distinct from eternity.

1388.  Wyclif, Rev. x. 6. And the aungel … lifte vp his hond … and swoor bi hym that lyueth in to worldis of worldis … that time schal no more be [1526 Tindale, that there shulde be no lenger tyme; 1557 Geneva, that tyme should be no more; 1611, that there should be time no longer].

1573.  Tusser, Husb. (1878), 65. For time is it selfe but a time for a time, Forgotten ful soone, as the tune of a chime.

1635.  Swan, Spec. M., i. § 3 (1643), 15. All time compared with eternitie is but short time, yea indeed as no time.

1650.  Crashaw, Death Herrys, 36. Weak time shall be pour’d out Into eternity.

1745.  Scotch Transl. & Paraphr., XXXV. ix. He lov’d us from the first of Time, And loves us to the last.

a. 1758.  Ramsay, Some of Contents of Evergreen, xi. A monument … Quhilk sall endure quhyle tymis telled out be days.

1803.  Heber, Palestine. His voice amid the thunder’s roar, His dreadful voice, that time should be no more.

1827.  Pollok, Course T., X. Time gone, the righteous saved, the wicked damned, And God’s eternal government approved.

1836.  H. Rogers, J. Howe, i. (1863), 8. Time, with him, derived all its importance from a reference to eternity.

Mod.  Entirely occupied with things of time and sense.

  27.  A system of measuring or reckoning the passage of time.

1706.  Phillips (ed. Kersey), s.v., Relative, Apparent, or Vulgar Time, is the sensible and outward Measure of any Duration or Continuance estimated by Motion; and this is commonly us’d instead of true Time.

1727–41.  Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Astronomical time, is that taken purely from the motion of the heavenly bodies, without any other regard. Civil time, is the former time accommodated to civil uses.

1764.  Maskelyne, in Phil. Trans., LIV. 344. There are three different kinds of time used by astronomers, sidereal time, apparent solar time, and mean solar time.

1834.  Nat. Philos., III. Math. Geog., v. 16/1 (Useful Knowl. Soc.). A common sun-dial shows the hour of apparent time. Time-keepers or chronometers, common watches and clocks, are made to show the hour of mean time.

1861, 1893.  [see GREENWICH].

  b.  Phrenol. (See quot.)

1860.  Mayne, Expos. Lex., Time,… Phrenol., a Faculty … giving the power of judging of time, and of intervals in general.

  IV.  Phrases. (See also sense 18.)
        * With another sb.

  28.  Time of day. a. The hour or exact time as shown by the clock; hence, a point or stage in any course or period (somewhat colloq.).

1596.  Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., I. ii. 1. Now Hal, what time of day is it Lad?

1634.  Ford, P. Warbeck, III. i. How runs the time of day? Past ten, my lord.

1699.  Collier, Answ. Stages Survey’d (1730), 382. The Favour of a Prince was not … unreputable at that Time of Day.

1771.  Smollett, Humph. Cl., 17 April. I will not begin at this time of day to distress my tenants, because they … cannot make regular payments.

1862.  Gen. P. Thompson, in Bradford Advertiser, 15 March, 6/1. No man at this time of day pretends to maintain, that [etc.].

1870.  Jas. Nicholson, Idylls, 25. A watch…. At least ’twad ha’e tald him the time o’ the day.

  b.  In salutations, as † Good, fair time of day (obs.); also, to give one, or pass, the time of day (now dial. and colloq.), to greet, salute, exchange salutations.

1594.  Shaks., Rich. III., I. iii. 18. Good time of day vnto your Royall Grace. Ibid. (1599), Hen. V., V. ii. 3. To our Sister Health and faire time of day. Ibid. (1608), Pericles, IV. iii. 35.

1611.  Cotgr., Saluër, to salute, greet,… giue the time of the day vnto.

1707.  J. Stevens, trans. Quevedo’s Com. Wks. (1709), 300. It shall be always allow’d to give the Time of the Day, but no New-Years-Gifts.

1851.  Mayhew, Lond. Labour (1861), II. 489/2. The police … they’re very friendly, they’ll pass the time of day with me.

1864.  Lett. to Editor. In Radnorshire a clergyman told me the other day that ‘there was not one in the parish who would not give him the time of day.’ He meant, say ‘How do’ or ‘a fine day, Sir.’

  c.  colloq. or slang. The prevailing aspect of affairs; the state of the case; (to know) ‘what’s what’; also, the right way of doing anything; the latest dodge or ‘wrinkle’; cf. to know what o’clock it is (CLOCK sb.¹ 3 d).

1667.  Poole, Dial betw. Protest. & Papist (1735), 144. No, Friend, it is not that time of Day.

1682.  Bunyan, Holy War, 11. If that be done, I know, quickly what time of day ’twill be with us.

1837.  Dickens, Pickw., xxxix. Steady, Sir, steady! That’s the time o’ day! Ibid. (1840), Barn. Rudge, xxxviii. Hurrah for the Protestant religion! That’s the time of day.

1897.  ‘Ouida,’ Massarenes, xxvii. ‘She knows the time o’ day,’ said the other.

  29.  Time of memory: see quot. 1848. Time out of mind (also, † out of memory), from a time or during a period beyond human memory; so time, † times (also for, from time) immemorial.

  Also † without or † out of t. of mind, † within time of mind, † before t. of mind had, † during t. of no mind; † from t. whereof is no mind, or whereof the memory of man is not (to) the contrary; † during, from, out of, of t. that no (man’s) mind is the contrary. See also MIND sb.¹ 2 f.

1407.  Waterf. Arch., in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. V. 329. The nonpaying … during time of noo mynde.

1425.  Rolls of Parlt., IV. 267/2. Beyng Erles, of tyme yat no mynde is ye contrarie.

1480.  Coventry Leet Bk., 460. Ther haue ben Chirchewardens … tyme out of mynde electyff yerely.

1504.  Sel. Cas. Crt. Star Chamber (Selden), I. 211. Which all weyes withoute tyme of mynde hath be made.

1511.  Waterf. Arch., in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. V. 325. Noo such custum here … oute of tyme of mynde.

1515.  Sel. Cas. Star Chamb. (Selden), II. 93. Bying and sellyng frely within tyme of mynd. Ibid. (1516), 107. Liberties … vsed the tyme wherof mannys mynde is not to the contrarie.

1523.  Fitzherb., Surv., 7. Except it haue ben vsed tyme out of mynde.

1527.  Sel. Cas. Star Chamber (Selden), II. 16. So hath been oute of tyme of mynd.

1553.  in Leadam, Court Requests (Selden), 196. Whether it grewe first … before tyme of mynde had.

1602.  [see IMMEMORIAL].

1622.  Callis, Stat. Sewers (1647), 89. He and his Predecessors had used time out of memory to repair such a Bridge, which was in decay.

1750.  Virginia Gaz., 21 March, 1/1. We begin to listen to the old legendary and traditional Accounts of local Ghosts, which, like the Genii of the Ancients, have been reported, Time immemorial, to haunt certain particular Family-Seats, and Cities, famous for their Antiquity and Decays.

1759.  Goldsm., Bee, No. 1, ¶ 11. This deformity … it had been the custom, time immemorial, to look upon as the greatest ornament of the human visage.

1760.  Impostors Detected, III. x. II. 103. The beavers having been in possession of it [the island] for time immemorial.

1765.  Blackstone, Comm., I. viii. 281. The king’s ordinary revenue is such, as has either subsisted time out of mind in the crown; or else has been granted by parliament.

1831–2.  Act 2 & 3 Will. IV., c. 71 § 1. Time Immemorial, or Time whereof the Memory of Man runneth not to the contrary.

1848.  Wharton, Law Lex., s.v. Memory, By Statute Westminster the First, 3 Edw. I., A.D. 1276, the time of memory was limited to the reign of Richard 1st, July 6th, 1189.

1887.  T. A. Trollope, What I remember, II. iii. 37. An ancient … goblet, which has belonged to the Musgraves time out of mind.

  30.  Time and tide, an alliterative reduplication, in various senses of time; now only or mainly in proverbial phrases, as time and tide wait (stay) for no man, etc., superseding the earlier tide (tide nor time) tarrieth no man, etc. (see TIDE sb. 13 b).

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 778. He wat wel wat tim or tide Þat ȝee hade eten o þis tre.

c. 1550.  R. Bieston, Bayte Fortune, B j. And founden wast thou fyrst in euyll time and tyde.

1581.  Marbeck, Bk. of Notes, 804. For their penaunce, according to the number, manner, time and tide giuen them by their ghostly father.

1602.  Marston, Antonio’s Rev., II. iv. The divell in his good time and tide forsake thee.

  31.  Time after time, on many occasions, repeatedly.

1631.  Gouge, God’s Arrows, iii. § 6. 192. The like hath been verified time after time.

1881.  Jowett, Thucyd., I. 42. Time after time we have warned you.

  ** With a following adv.

  32.  Time about, alternately, in turns. (Formerly with their.) Chiefly Sc. or northern.

1537.  Registr. Aberdon. (Maitland), I. 413. Sex of þe foirsaid viccaris þair tyme about ilk Satirdaye … sall syng þe foirsaid anteme.

a. 1670.  Spalding, Troubles Chas. I. (1850), I. 131. Becaus … diuerss of his freindis sould cum … thair tyme about, and attend his lordschipis seruice.

1756.  Mrs. Calderwood, in Coltness Collect. (Maitl.), 272. That a protestant emperor should be chosen time about with a popish.

1816.  Scott, Antiq., xxv. Time about’s fair play.

1828.  Craven Gloss., s.v,. Times about, in turns, in rotation.

1859.  G. Wilson, Gateway Knowl. (ed. 3), 39. Two paviours, driving in stones, bring down their mallets time about.

  33.  Time (also times) and again, with frequent recurrence; repeatedly, very often.

1864.  D. G. Mitchell, Seven Stor., 49. Time and again I looked over the way.

1870.  [see AGAIN adv. 4 b].

1878.  Mrs. H. Wood, Pomeroy Abb., I. 85. Times and again she had wondered … who the recreant truant could be.

1897.  Hall Caine, Christian, IV. xiv. Time and again I thought John’s love of you was near to madness.

  b.  Times and often; times without number; many a time and oft: see 18.

  34.  Time back, at some past time. Obs. or dial.

1834.  Landor, Exam. Shaks., Wks. 1846, II. 298/1. The girl’s mother, sir, was housemaid and sempstress in your own family, time back.

1887.  S. Chesh. Gloss., Time ago…, Time back..., some time ago.

  35.  Time enough, soon enough, in time, sufficiently early.

1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. XI. 35. A man may stoupe tymes [C. XII. 197 tyme] ynow whan he shal tyne þe croune.

1470–85.  Malory, Arthur, VII. xi. 228. Thou shalt see hym tyme ynough.

1583.  Stocker, Civ. Warres Lowe C., III. 116 b. They came not time enough to lay flat the forte, and therefore the Citizens themselues did it.

1669.  R. Montagu, in Buccleuch MSS. (Hist. MSS. Comm.), I. 458. That I may prepare time enough to fit my equipage for the journey.

1726.  Swift, Stella’s Birthday, 7. To-morrow will be time enough To hear such mortifying stuff.

1864.  Mrs. Gatty, Parables fr. Nat., Ser. IV. 27. Time enough to go into the depths when you have used up what is so much easier got at.

  ***  With a governing preposition.

  36.  Against time, in competition with the passage of time; so as to finish one’s task before the expiry of a certain period.

1854, 1868.  [see AGAINST prep. 12 d].

1872.  Punch, 10 Feb., 57/2. No member shall speak against time or his own convictions.

1883.  Swinburne, in Encycl. Brit., XV. 556/2. A man who … was often … compelled to write against time for his living.

1887.  Ruskin, Præterita, II. 171. [To] walk against time up a regular slope of eight feet in the hundred is the most trying foot-work I know.

  37.  At time(s, etc. a. At times, † at (a) time (obs. rare), at one time and another, at various times, occasionally. Also at times and again.

1529.  More, Dyaloge, III. Wks. 245/1. Our sauiour at tyme taught his apostles a part.

1604.  Shaks., Oth., II. iii. 319. You, or any man liuing, may be drunke at a time, man.

1611.  Bible, Judg. xiii. 25. The Spirit of the Lord beganne to mooue him at times.

1779.  Mirror, No. 39, ¶ 9. I believe most men have, at times, wished to be … possessed of the power of moulding the world to their fancy.

1864.  Reader, 634/3. Some blacks, at times and again, hovering over a few coals.

1884.  W. C. Smith, Kildrostan, 46. I blame myself at times.

  b.  (At) one time with (and) another, during various detached periods; on various occasions.

1612.  R. Fenton, Usury, 37. If they could with their owne free stocke raise the like gaine one time with another.

1845.  T. W. Coit, Puritanism, let. xii. 252. Winthrop, whom the elders feared as a fixture, and whom the people turned out of office because he could not learn Puritanical lessons as fast as Endicott, was governor, at one time with another, eleven years.

1884.  Mrs. Oliphant, Sir Tom, II. vi. 84. He had seen a good deal of her one time and another in his life.

  c.  At the same time, during the same period, at the same moment, not before or after. (Formerly without at.) Also used in introducing a reservation, explanation, or contrast, = ‘while saying this, nevertheless, however, yet, still.’

1526.  Tindale, Matt. xviii. 1. The same tyme the disciples cam vnto Iesus, sayng [etc.]. Ibid., Acts xix. 23. The same tyme there arose no litell a do aboute that waye.

1563.  Pilkington, Burn. Paules Ch., D ij b. Tertulian who lyued at the same time of this Pope.

1705.  Steele, Tender Husb., Ded. At the same time I hope I make the Town no ill Compliment … in acknowledging that it has so far rais’d my Opinion [etc.].

1749.  West, trans. Pindar, Nem. Ode, xi. Argt. Lest he should be too much puffed up with these Praises, he reminds him at the same Time of his Mortality.

1780.  Mirror, No. 100, ¶ 4. In two of Shakespeare’s tragedies are introduced, at the same time, instances of counterfeit madness, and of real distraction.

1891.  ‘J. S. Winter,’ Lumley, xv. Give them my best wishes. At the same time I must say I do not envy the girl.

  38.  Between times, in the intervals between other actions; at intervals, between-whiles.

[1580, a. 1641.  Between-time sb.: see BETWEEN B. 4.]

1902.  Eliz. L. Banks, Newspaper Girl, 159. She served me faithfully till the very last, packing her humble belongings in between times.

  † 39.  By time, by times. a. By time: in good time, early; = BETIME adv. Obs.

c. 1250, a. 1300.  [see BETIME adv. 1, 2].

1340–70.  Alex. & Dind., 368. We ne sain hut soþ & sesen by time.

c. 1425.  Cast. Persev., 413, in Macro Plays, 89. Ȝa, on þi sowle þou schalt þynke al be tyme.

1565.  W. Allen, in Fulke, Confut. Purg. (1577), 142. Therfore deare brethern let vs turne and amende by time.

  † b.  By times: (a) in good time, early; BETIMES adv.; (b) at various times; from time to time; at times, now and then. Obs.

c. 1314, c. 1380.  [see BETIMES adv. 1, 3].

c. 1460.  Fortescue, Abs. & Lim. Mon., xi. (1885), 135. The kynge … hade be tymes, sithen he reigned vpon vs, livelod … nerehand to the value of þe v^th parte off is Reaume.

1530.  Tindale, Answ. More, Wks. (1572), 251/1. Let therfore M. More and his company awake be tymes ere euer their sinne be ripe.

1657.  North’s Plutarch (1676), 960. He slept in the day, and by times in the night.

1743.  in Egan, Boxiana (1830), I. 49. Gentlemen are therefore desired to come by times.

1825.  Knapp & Baldw., Newgate Cal., IV. 177/1. The prisoner and I were on good terms by times.

1825.  Scott, Betrothed, xi. His nephew … was despatched by times every morning.

  † c.  By a time, at times, occasionally. Obs.

1721.  Kelly, Prov., 26. A Horse with four Feet may snapper, by a time.

  † 40.  For time, for the time being. Obs.

1464.  Rolls of Parlt., V. 510/2. Any persone or persones for tyme dwellyng … within the same Chapell. Ibid. (1483), VI. 257/1. The Goodes and Chattells of the seid Provost and Fellawes for tyme founden upon the seid Lande.

  41.  From time to time. a. At more or less regular intervals; now and again, occasionally; in quot. 1382, † at stated times, at definite intervals (obs.); in quot. c. 1412 with ellipsis of from.

1382.  Wyclif, Ezek. iv. 11. Fro tyme vn to tyme [1388 fro tyme til to tyme] thou shalt drynke it.

c. 1412.  Hoccleve, De Reg. Princ., 4189. Tyme to tyme he ȝaf hem Of his goode.

1423.  Acts Privy Council, III. 88. Ye desire to be acertained fro tyme to tyme of oure prosperite and welfare.

1651.  Hobbes, Leviathan, III. xl. 255. From thence proceeded from time to time the civill troubles … of the Nation.

1891.  Law Rep., Weekly Notes, 136/1. The passage … was used only from time to time, and not continuously.

  † b.  Denoting succession of periods without intervals: Continuously, constantly, at all times.

1553.  T. Wilson, Rhet., 14. Heaven is theirs, saieth David, that doe justly from tyme to tyme.

1586.  T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad. (1589), 519. Therefore nothing was more esteemed from time to time among the auncients, than the institution of youth, which Plato calleth Discipline.

  42.  In time, † in times. a. In time. (a) In the course of time, sooner or later. (b) Soon or early enough, not too late. † (c) At a suitable time; seasonably; opposed to out of time, 44 a (a). Obs. rare. (d) Mus. In the correct rhythm: see 12 a.

  (a)  c. 1450.  trans. De Imitatione, III. xxxv. 103. Consolacion shal come to þe in tyme.

1594.  Willobie, Avisa, xlvii. I thinke in tyme she may be wonne.

1656.  Earl Monm., trans. Boccalini’s Advts. fr. Parnass., I. xxiii. (1674), 24. Potent men … would certainly in time work their revenge.

1818.  Scott, Hrt. Midl., xvi. The inner turnkey’s office to begin wi’, and the captainship in time.

  (b.)  1467–8.  Rolls of Parlt., V. 623/1. Yf it were used in tyme.

1605.  Shaks., Macb., II. iii. 6. Come in time, haue Napkins enow about you.

1742.  Observ. Methodists, 4. It will be too late to remedy it if not attended to in Time.

1834.  Picture of Liverpool, 73. Letters put into any of the Receiving Houses before twelve o’clock will be in time for the early mails.

1912.  Eng. Hist. Rev., XXVII. Jan., 44. Mansel soon returned from his mission in 1238, and was in time to assume the custody of the seal in September 1238.

  (c.)  1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. IX. 184. Whan ȝe haue wyued, bewar and worcheth in tyme.

1583.  Stubbes, Anat. Abus., II. (1882), 78. The worde of God is to be preached night and day, in time, and out of time, in season and out of season.

  † b.  In times. (a) At various times, on several different occasions. (b) In times … in times, sometimes … sometimes; at one time … at another.

1422.  trans. Secreta Secret., Priv. Priv., 181. He that is a gouernoure in tymes he shall Spare, and in tymes vengeaunse take.

1612.  MS. Acc. St. John’s Hosp., Canterb. Payd vnto Thomas Williames in times in consederation of a challing of sartayn tythe wood.

  c.  In good time. (a) After the lapse of a suitable interval; in due course or process of time; at a proper time, when it seems good. (b) Soon or early; quickly. † (c) At the right or a seasonable moment; luckily. Obs. † (d) As an expression of ironical acquiescence, incredulity, amazement, or the like: To be sure!, indeed!, very well! (Cf. Fr. à la bonne heure.) Obs.

  (a)  c. 1440.  Lovelich, Merlin, 9985. Forth on his message he gan to gon, and dyde his message al in good tyme.

1622.  in Crt. & Times Jas. I. (1848), II. 343. But God, in his good time, will amend all that is amiss.

1724.  Caledonian Mercury, 22 June, 3933. He narrowly escaped with Life, being forced to hide himself very privately, till they [a riotous rabble] thought fit, in their good Time, to leave his House.

1777.  Sheridan, Sch. Scand., IV. i. I shall be rich and splenetic, all in good time.

1822.  Scott, Pirate, ix. ‘The devil take him!’ said Mordaunt, in impatient surprise, ‘A’ in gude time,’ replied the jagger.

1883.  Gilmour, Mongols, xvii. 206. Every true-hearted follower shall, in good time, arrive at the desired goal.

  (b)  1585.  T. Washington, trans. Nicholay’s Voy., II. xxii. 63. [They] come home againe in good time without the knowledge … of their husbands.

1872.  Punch, 19 Oct., 158/1. My aunt wants to be back in good time.

  (c)  1586.  A. Day, Eng. Secretary, II. (1625), 62. If it please you then to returne by him those parcels…, they will come now in very good time.

1590.  Shaks., Com. Err., II. ii. 65. Learne to iest in good time, there’s a time for all things.

1639.  S. Du Verger, trans. Camus’ Admir. Events, 7. This came in good time to keepe this poore family from necessity.

  (d)  1610.  Shaks., Temp., II. i. 95. Sowing the kernels of it [an island] … bring forth more Islands…. Why in good time.

1650.  Fuller, Pisgah, II. vi. 149. There … even at this day, are shewed the ruines of those three tabernacles built according to Peters desire. In very good time no doubt!

1789.  Mrs. Piozzi, Journ. France, II. 50. Bonducci … calls him emulous of Milton, in good time! Ibid., 369. Making fat the objects of his partial tenderness with their best treasures—in good time!

  43.  On time, punctually; also pred. punctual. Chiefly U.S. colloq. See also 48.

1870.  ‘Oliver Optic,’ On Time, 152. The trains east and west were on time.

1878.  Mrs. Stowe, Poganuc P., xxiii. 209. His wife had always been on time, and on duty.

1890, 1892.  [see ON prep. 6 d].

1893.  Scribner’s Mag., June, 781/2. My endeavors to get the family out of the house and into our pew on time.

1904.  Daily Chron., 5 Feb., 3/4. An Americanism here and there out of place (as … when the native dwarf, Cerberus … speaks of his mistress as being ‘on time’ in her return from a trance).

  † b.  On a time: see 14. Obs.

  44.  Out of time. a. adv. phr. † (a) At an inappropriate time; unseasonably. Obs. (b) After the prescribed period has elapsed; too late. See also 7 b (f). (c) Mus. See 12 a.

  (a)  1393.  Langl., P. Pl., C. XI. 291. Ȝe þat han wyues, beþ war worcheþ nat out of tyme.

c. 1420.  Avow. Arth., xxiii. I, Kay, that thou knawes, That owte of tyme bostus and blawus.

1579.  Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 100. Doth not Tryacle as well poyson as helpe, if it be taken out of time?

1583.  [see 42 a (c)].

1780.  Warner in Jesse, Selwyn & Contemp. (1844), IV. 325. I went like a thing born out of time, and had the door almost shut in my face.

  (b)  1884.  Graham Hastings, in Law Times Rep., L. 175/1. On that view of the case also they are out of time, as they took no steps in the matter until Oct. 1883.

1886.  Law Times, LXXX. 241/2. Counsel for the respondent took a preliminary objection that the appeal was out of time.

  b.  adj. phr. Unseasonable: see OUT-OF-TIME.

  45.  To time. † a. For all time, for ever. Obs.

c. 1200.  Trin. Coll. Hom., 183. For þine gulte ishal nu to pine, rotie mote þu to time.

1607.  Shaks., Cor., V. iii. 127. I … that brought you forth this boy To keepe your name liuing to time.

  † b.  conj. phr. To the time that, until such time as, till. Also into, unto, till time. Obs.

a. 1352.  Minot, Poems (1887), iv. 6. In þat land … Ordanis he still for to dwell, To time he think to fight.

c. 1449.  Pecock, Repr., II. xvi. (Rolls), 246. Thei [images] wolden not at alle tymes ȝeue answeris … into tyme thei weren myche preied.

c. 1470.  Henry, Wallace, III. 432. I sall do nocht till tyme I tak my leyff.

c. 1500.  Melusine, 170. I shal neuer departe fro this land vnto tyme I be al dyscomfyted, or þat I haue put them to flyght.

1506.  Guylforde, Pilgr. (Camden), 18. A lytell cave, where they shytte him in, to tyme the Jewes had … determynyd what they wolde do with hym.

  c.  Within certain limits of time; so as to complete something by the end of a certain period.

1874.  Ethel de Fonblanque, Life A. Fonblanque, 40. A growing dislike to the act of ‘writing to time.’

  46.  With time, with the lapse of time, in the course of time; = in time (42 a (a)).

1578–9.  Reg. Privy Council Scot., III. 82. Your Hienes sal have pruif with tyme of my following thair trew … service to your Grace.

1650.  Earl Monm., trans. Senault’s Man bec. Guilty, 104. When with time he is grown greater. Ibid., 272. Ambition increasing with time.

Mod.  With time it will come all right.

  † 47.  Without time, outside of or independent of time; for ever: eternal(ly). Obs.

a. 1400.  Prymer, 6. Holi modir of god … þat we … moun stie up to þe seete of endeles blis, þere þou dwellist wiþ þi sone wiþ-outen tyme.

1509.  Hawes, Past. Pleas., xliv. (Percy Soc.), 215. Withouten tyme is no erthly thynge, Nature, fortune, or yet dame Sapyence.

1587.  Golding, De Mornay, vi. 79. This Minde is without time and onely everlasting.

  † 48.  In commercial phraseology, at, for, on time, at the rate which may be current on the day appointed for settling; cf. TIME-BARGAIN. Obs.

1651.  Marius, Adv. Conc. Bills Exch., 74. Goods sold one part for ready Mony, the rest at Time.

1727.  Swift, What passed in London, Wks. 1755, III. I. 188. There were many who called themselves Christians, who offered to buy for time.

1766.  W. Gordon, Gen. Counting-h., 10. Debited … to the persons of whom they are bought, if on time.

  ****  With a verb.

  49.  [The] time was (hath been, shall be), inversion of there was (etc.) a time (when).

1509.  Barclay, Shyp of Folys (1874), I. 35. The tyme hath ben, nat longe before our dayes Whan [etc.].

1549.  Coverdale, etc., Erasm. Par. Gal. v. 18. The tyme was, when it was nedefull.

1611.  Bible, Transl. Pref., 5. The same Hierome elsewhere affirmeth, that he, the time was, had set forth the Translation of the Seuenty for his countrymen of Dalmatia.

1791.  Cowper, Iliad, I. 300. Time shall be, when Achilles shall be miss’d.

1874.  Micklethwaite, Mod. Par. Churches, 251. Time was when we had a national style.

  50.  To keep time. a. Mus. To mark the rhythm by movements of the hand or baton; to beat time; also, of a performer, to adhere to the correct rhythm and rate of the music, to keep pace with a measure or another performer, etc. Also fig.

1599.  B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Rev., I. i. Slow, slow, fresh fount, keep time with my salt tears.

1662.  Playford, Skill Mus., I. ix. (1674), 29. In keeping time your hand goes down at one half, and up at the next.

1687.  Lovell, trans. Thevenot’s Trav., II. 85. They beat this Stuff with one hand two and two over against one another,… keeping time to this tune.

1817.  Byron, Beppo, lxiii. I can’t well break it, But must keep time and tune like public singers.

1821.  Scott, Kenilw., xviii. Thy reward shall be princely, if thou keep’st time and touch, and exceedest not the due proportion.

  b.  Of a timepiece: To register the passage of time correctly.

1899.  P. N. Hasluck, Clock Jobber’s Handbk., 61. The clock is ready … with every probability of going and keeping time for two or three years.

  V.  Combinations.

  51.  a. Simple attrib. (a) ‘Of or pertaining to time,’ as time-basis, -division, -drop, -guide, -integral (INTEGRAL B. 4 a), -mark, -ocean, -perspective, -reference, -schedule, -sense, -variation; also, ‘of time as distinct from eternity,’ as time-element, -pattern, -state, -vesture, -world; (b) ‘relating to, based upon, or indicating the amount of time occupied in some work or process,’ as time-allowance, -board, -log (LOG sb.¹ 7), -march, prize, -race, -record, -ticket; (c) in names of instruments, machines, or appliances used as time-signals or timed to operate at a given moment, as time-alarm (ALARM sb. 7), -bomb, -fuse, -glass (cf. HOUR-GLASS), -gun, -measure, -taper.

1877.  Knight, Dict. Mech., *Time-alarm, an audible notice at the expiration of a set time.

1883.  D. Kemp, in Fortn. Rev., 1 Sept., 324. The yachts … were sailed in classes without *time-allowance.

1849.  J. A. Carlyle, trans. Dante’s Inferno, p. xxxi. The whole *time-basis of his mighty song has become dim and cold.

1890.  W. J. Gordon, Foundry, 34. As the men come in past the time-office they take their piece or *time-boards from the rack, where each is placed against its proper number.

1895.  Times, 7 Jan., 3/3. In the case of one large yard the men have come out on strike against the introduction of the ‘timeboard’ system.

1885.  Even. Herald (Fort Scott, KS), 30 March, 2/1. The fact comes out that the dynamiters had arranged to ‘remove’ the Prince of Wales in Ireland, by means of *time bombs, placed so as to explode during his holding a levee in Dublin.

1893.  Daily Tel., 9 Nov., 5/7. The engine of destruction was not a time bomb.

1877.  E. Caird, Philos. Kant, II. x. 415. The schematism of the categories, the translation of them into *time-determinations is no mere idle play of the imagination.

1888.  J. Prestwich, Geol., II. 3. The great *time-divisions are of almost universal application.

a. 1711.  Ken, Preparatives, Poet. Wks. 1721, IV. 39. Minutes … On these *Time-drops eternal Joys depend.

1831.  Carlyle, Sart. Res., III. viii. Pierce through the *Time-element, glance into the Eternal.

1862.  Catal. Internat. Exhib., II. xi. 23. A fuse … placed and used like the ordinary simple *time fuse.

1804–6.  Syd. Smith, Mor. Philos. (1850), 122. If you were to say that man was like a *time-glass,—that both must run out, and both render up their dust.

1875.  Zoologist, X. 4587. He wished it to be a *time-guide to the appearance of butterflies and moths.

1878.  Stevenson, Edinburgh, 133. The *time-gun by which people set their watches.

1885.  Tait, Rec. Adv. Phys. Sci. (ed. 3), 359. Momentum is the *Time-Integral of Force because force is the rate of change of Momentum.

1868.  *Time-log [see LOG sb.¹ 7].

1891.  Labour Commission Gloss., Time-Log, the printed statement of times allowed for making garments in the tailoring trade, agreed upon between employers and employed.

1896.  Daily News, 22 Dec., 6/6. Captain M—— … was thrown from his horse yesterday near Fleet during a *time march.

1901.  Spectator, 20 July, 93/2. The continually recurring *time-marks of winter and summer.

1726.  Leoni, Alberti’s Archit., Pref. 3. Vehicles, Mills, *Time-measures, and other such minute things.

1864.  Lowell, Fireside Trav., 125. The old *time-ocean throws upon its shores just such rounded and polished results of the eternal turmoil.

1907.  Gentl. Mag., July, 80. The Australian child is deficient not so much in imagination as in what may be called *time-perspective.

1897.  Outing (U.S.), Aug., 494/1. In 1890 Murphy was on scratch, and won the *time-prize.

1852.  Bateman, Aquatic Notes, an. 1844. P. M—— [won the sculls] after a good *‘time-race’ with R——.

1887.  E. Moore (title), The *Time-References in the Divina Commedia, and their Bearing on the Assumed Date and Duration of the Vision.

1877.  E. Caird, Philos. Kant, II. xi. 445. So far as sensations are represented as objects, they must be represented as events in time, and thus … considered as the real subjects of *time-relations like any other events.

1904.  Daily Chron., 31 Dec., 6/7. The reconstruction of an old [line], when the working moments must be snatched in the gaps of the *time-schedule, and the greater part of the work must be carried out during a period of four hours at dead of night.

1899.  Syd. Soc. Lex., *Time sense, the perception of the lapse of time.

1810.  Southey, Kehama, VIII. vii. Lo! the *time-taper’s flame ascending slow.

1903.  R. Wallace, Life, iii. 52. This view of the ‘Sabbath’ as a sacrifice or *time-tax paid to the Deity.

1900.  ‘H. Lawson,’ Over Sliprails, 123. The door opened. Arvie gathered up his lunch, took his *time-ticket, and hurried in.

1881.  Maxwell, Electr. & Magn., II. 223. The third term … depends on the *time-variation of the magnetic field.

1831.  Carlyle, Sart. Res., III. viii. Nature, which is the *Time-vesture of God, and reveals Him to the wise, hides Him from the foolish. Ibid. (1843), Past & Pr., II. vi. This *Time-world … plays and flickers in the grand still mirror of Eternity.

  Objective and obj. gen., as time-beater, -giver, -measurer, -observer, -pleaser, -saver, -setter (1340), -spender, -waster (1661), etc.; time-beguiling (1592), -bettering, -breaking, -deluding, -devouring, -economizing, -noting, -setting (1340), -spending (1509), -wasting, etc., adjs. and sbs.; c. instrumental, as time-authorized (a 1628), -battered, -bent, -bewasted (1593), -blackened, -blanched, -born, -bound, -cleft, -discolored, -eaten, -gnawn, -mellowed, -rent, -rusty, -shrouded, -taught, -tried, -wasted, -wearied, -white, -withered, etc., adjs.; d. in various relations with pples. and adjs., as time-enduring († -during), -lasting, -marked, -proof, -served.

a. 1628.  F. Grevil, Sidney, xv. (1652), 199. Those *time-authorized assemblies.

1729.  Savage, Wanderer, v. 44. *Time-batter’d Tow’rs frown awful in Decay.

1881.  Athenæum, 5 March, 342/3. To feel at once the important difference between a conductor and a *time-beater.

1592.  Shaks., Ven. & Ad., 24. A sommers day … wasted in such *time-beguiling sport.

1863.  Pilgr. over Prairies, II. 302. The grey and *timebent grandsire.

c. 1600.  Shaks., Sonn., lxxxii. Some fresher stampe of the *time bettering dayes. Ibid. (1593), Rich. II., I. iii. 221. My oyle-dride Lampe, and *time-bewasted light.

1806.  Surr, Winter in Lond., I. 178. *Time-blanched locks.

1628.  Gaule, Pract. The. Panegyr., 59. He *time-borne Sonne, got from eternitie.

1647.  Fuller, Good Th. in Worse T. (1841), 132. When we are *time-bound, place-bound, or person-bound.

1601.  Sir W. Cornwallis, Ess., II. xxxvi. (1631), 102. After comes the torture of the *time-breaking wheele.

1800.  Hurdis, Fav. Village, 182. The *time-cleft arch Of ancient chantry.

a. 1617.  Hieron, Wks. (1620), I. 10. Idle loyterers … or *time-deluding triflers.

1742.  Mrs. Delany, in Life & Corr. (1861), II. 198. Accustomed to the many hurries and *time-devouring accidents of this huge place.

1823.  in Spirit Publ. Jrnls. (1824), II. (N.S.), 386, note. With here and there a few straggling locks of silvery gray, which, like the *time-discolored moss upon some ancient battlements, are the true emblems of antiquity.

1836.  H. Coleridge, North. Worthies, Introd. (1852), 17. To … run his eye along the time-discoloured pages.

1548.  Udall, etc., Erasm. Par. John, xi. 80. Not … that it is an uncouth or a *time duryng thyng to me.

a. 1849.  Poe, City in Sea, i. *Time-eaten towers that tremble not.

1839.  Bailey, Festus, xi. (1852), 142. Now go I forth again … Upon my *time-enduring pilgrimage.

1613.  Daniel, Coll. Hist. Eng. (1626), 33. The King … was no *time-giuer vnto growing dangers.

1863.  Hawthorne, Our Old Home (1879), 162. A gray, *time-gnawn, ponderous, shadowy structure.

1674.  N. Fairfax, Bulk & Selv., 40. This *time-lasting World, and every while-being thing in it.

1888.  E. Clodd, Story Creation, xi. 217. The rude … chant of the savage, *time-marked by yell and tamtam.

1864.  Hawthorne, S. Felton (1883), 265. The *time-measurer of one whose mortal life he had cut off.

1904.  Edin. Rev., Jan., 200. The pendulum was … assigned its function as a time-measurer.

1615.  Brathwait, Strappado (1878), 109. My *Time-noting lines ayme not at thee.

1647.  Trapp, Comm. Luke xiv. 7. Ministers, though they may not be time-servers, yet they must be *time-observers.

1601.  Shaks., Twel. N., II. iii. 160. The diu’ll a Puritane that hee is, or any thing constantly but a *time-pleaser. Ibid. (1607), Cor., III. i. 45. Time-pleasers.

1806.  J. Grahame, Birds Scot., 74. In some vacant niche, Or *time-rent crevice.

1639.  Fuller, Holy War, V. xxix. 279. How would a Herald sweat with scouring over these *time-rustie titles.

1873.  Hamerton, Intell. Life, IV. i. (1876), 135. The best *time-savers.

1900.  Daily Express, 13 June, 5/2. All the men … at the bureaus for *time-served soldiers.

1340.  Ayenb., 36. Þe *time-zettere ontrewe … Vor hire *time-zettinge hi destrueþ and makeþ beggeres þe knyȝtes.

1794.  Coleridge, Monody Death Chatterton, ad fin. Sweet Harper of *time-shrouded Minstrelsy.

1670.  G. H., Hist. Cardinals, I. I. 12. Those impertinent *time-spenders, the Priests.

1509.  Hawes, Past. Pleas., xliv. (Percy Soc.), 215. Eyther hell or heaven, wythout lesynge, Alway he getteth in his *tyme spendynge.

1799.  Campbell, Pleas. Hope, II. 224. The *time-taught spirit, pensive not severe.

1870.  Ruskin, Lect. Art, i. (1875), 28. Faithful servant of *time-tried principles.

1814.  Scott, Ld. of Isles, I. Introd. iv. Through fields *time-wasted, on sad inquest bound.

1661.  Baxter, Last Work Believer, Wks. (1846), 253. She was a stranger to pastimes, and no companion for *time-wasters.

1741–2.  Gray, Agrippina, 139. The slacken’d sinews of *time-wearied age.

c. 1611.  Chapman, Iliad, VIII. 454. To warn the youth, yet short of war, and *time-white fathers.

  52.  Special combs.: time-attack (Fencing) = time-thrust; time-bill, (a) a time-table of trains, etc.; (b) a record kept by the guard of a train of the time it leaves each station; time-book, (a) a book in which an entry is made of the time worked by employees; (b) a chronicle (cf. Ger. zeitbuch); (c) = time-bill (a); time-candle (see quot.); time-card, (a) a card on which a record is kept of time worked; (b) a card time-table; time-catch, in a photographic camera, a catch that retains the shutter for a fixed time; time-catcher, in Fencing, one who ‘takes the time’: see 21; time-charter (see quot.); time-clause Gram., an adverbial clause of time, a temporal clause; time-constant Electr. (see quot. 1903); time-course Naut., a ship’s run, as in a fog, calculated by the vessel’s speed, the time occupied, and the direction; time-curve (see quot.); time-detector, a clock (stationary at a point) or watch (carried by the watchman) having additional mechanism, operated by the watchman, to show the times at which he was at certain points of his round (Knight, Dict. Mech., 1877): cf. TELL-TALE 2 g; also called time-watch; time-disk, an instrument used in conjunction with the kymograph for investigating the time-sense; time-expired a., whose term of engagement has expired; time-exposure Photogr., exposure for a regulated time, as distinguished from instantaneous exposure; so time-exposed a.; † time-fellow, a contemporary; time-globe, a terrestrial globe rotated once in twenty-four hours by a clock-movement, and encircled at the equator by a stationary graduated zone, showing the local time at any meridian; time-lag, the length of time separating two correlated physical phenomena; time-line, (a) pl. a certificate of apprenticeship (see LINE sb.² 23 f); (b) an undulating line indicating small fractions of a second, by which the time or rate of some process may be measured; time-lock, a lock with clockwork attachment that prevents its being unlocked until a set time; time-marker, (a) an automatic device in a cab, etc., which registers the time it is in use, with the fare payable; (b) Electr. (see quot. 1902); time-notice, a notice given a definite time before; time-payment, (a) payment by installments; (b) payment on the basis of time worked; time-policy (see quot. 1849); time-rate, (a) rate in time; (b) rate of payment on the basis of time worked; time-recorder, an apparatus that records the time of an act or event; time-sheet, a time-table (on a sheet); the paper on which are entered the names of workmen and the hours worked by them; time-shutter, in the photographic camera, a shutter for time-exposures; time-sight Naut., an observation of the altitude of the sun or a star for the purpose of ascertaining the time and, hence, the longitude (Cent. Dict.); time-signal, a visible or audible signal made at an observatory, etc., to announce the exact time, e.g., the fall of a time-ball, or firing of a time-gun; time-signature Mus., a sign placed at the beginning of a piece of music, or where the time changes, to show the measure or rhythm; rhythmical signature; time-taker, † (a) = TIME-SERVER 1; (b) one who takes a note of the time occupied in any work or course; time-taking a., that takes time, leisurely, slow; time-thrust (Fencing), an offensive-defensive counterstroke made within the time of the adversary’s movement of attack, and preventing its completion; time-value Mus., the relative duration of a note; time-waiter, one who awaits a favorable turn of events; cf. TIDE-WAITER 2; time-watch = time-detector; time-work, work that is paid for on the basis of the time occupied; distinguished from piece-work; so time-worker; time-zone, any one of the twenty-four divisions of the surface of the globe (each bounded by two meridian lines), within each of which the standard time adopted is the mean solar time of the meridian distant from Greenwich a number of complete hours: an improper designation, for the regions so bounded are not zones. See also TIME-BALL, -BARGAIN, -WORN, etc.

1889.  Dunn, Fencing, 62. *‘Time’ attacks, whereby, having anticipated in what line your opponent’s attack will be delivered, you intercept his blade as he gives in his attack.

1847.  (July 1) East. Counties & E. Union Railways (Railw. Mag., Jan., 1910. 46). *Time bills of a prior date are not correct.

1858.  Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Time-bill, a time-table of the arrivals and departures of trains, omnibuses, steamers, &c.

1878.  F. S. Williams, Midl. Railw., 658. To ascertain the precise moment that the train clears certain stations, that he [the guard] may … chronicle the same in his time-bill.

1898.  Daily News, 19 Oct., 3/2. She looked down the timebill for a place a long way off, and seeing Blackpool and the distance it was off took a ticket for there.

1854.  H. Miller, Sch. & Schm., xiii. (1858), 271. I still retained the *time-book in my master’s behalf.

1867.  trans. Ewald’s Hist. Israel, 92. Like a true time-book (or chronicle) terminated with the description of the most recent great deeds.

1877.  Knight, Dict. Mech., *Time-candle, one in which the size and quality of the material and the wick are so regulated that a certain length will burn in a given time.

1891.  Cent. Dict., *Time-card.

1898.  Engineering Mag., XVI. 41. Each workman perforates a five-minute time-card for each job on which he is employed, simply piercing the card at the five-minute points most nearly representing his times of beginning and ending.

1890.  Anthony’s Photogr. Bull., III. 383. The *time catch is on the other side, and by means of two slots and pins, is arranged so that it cannot fall backwards or forwards when not in use.

1753.  Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v. Binding, The great objection made by some people, particularly those *time-catchers, against the frequent use of binding, is [etc.].

1891.  Labour Commission Gloss, *Time-charter, an agreement under which the owner hires his vessel for a stipulated monthly payment, generally in advance, in which case the charterer loads and discharges the vessel.

1895.  Funk’s Stand. Dict., *Time-constant.

1903.  Sloane, Stand. Electr. Dict. (ed. 10), Time Constant. (a) If in any circuit we divide the inductance in henries by the resistance in ohms, the ratio gives the time-constant of the circuit, or it expresses the time which it will take for the current to reach 0.63 of its final value. (b) In a static condenser the time required for the charge to fall to 1/2.7183th part of its original value.

1909.  Cent. Dict. Suppl., *Time-curve, a curve so plotted that one of its coördinates represents time, or periods of time.

1901.  E. B. Titchener, Exper. Psychol., I. x. 338. The most useful appliance for investigation is, probably, Meumann’s ‘time-sense’ apparatus, consisting of Baltzar kymograph, *time-disc, set of contacts, and sound-hammers.

1885.  Sir H. Green, in Pall Mall G., 14 Feb., 2/1. *Time-expired soldiers in India will not, as a rule, re-enter the ranks.

1889.  Anthony’s Photogr. Bull., II. 79. To level your camera when taking *time-exposed pictures and hence get straight lines.

1893.  J. A. Hodges, Elem. Photogr. (1907), 18. A tripod stand will be required … when *‘time’ exposures are given.

1899.  A. B. Lloyd, in Daily News, 9 Jan., 2/3. I couldn’t give a time exposure, as the pigmies would not stand still.

1577.  Harrison, England, I. xviii. (1880), 131. My Synchroni or *time fellows can reape at this present great commoditie in a little roome.

1638.  Chillingw., Relig. Prot., I. vi. § 23. 340. The disinterested time-fellowes or immediate Successors of Liberius.

1862.  Cat. Internat. Exhib., Brit., II. No. 5516. *Time globe, planetary clock.

1895.  Daily News, 5 Dec., 2/2. The masters, it is admitted, would be acting quite within their powers if they refuse to grant the apprentices their *time lines.

1898.  Allbutt’s Syst. Med., V. 814. No pulse is regular, as a time line at the foot of a sphygmographic tracing will prove.

1877.  Knight, Dict. Mech., *Time-lock, a lock having clock-work attached which … prevents the bolt being withdrawn when locked, until a certain interval of time has elapsed.

1908.  Daily Chron., 10 June, 7/1. The time-lock on the door of a bank’s vaults makes it impossible for the bank’s officers themselves to enter the strong room after closing-time.

1898.  Westm. Gaz., 11 March, 7/2. Five hundred cabs provided with the *time and fare marker were put on the stands.

1903.  Sloane, Stand. Electr. Dict., Suppl. (ed. 10), Time Marker. A light flexible stylus actuated by an electro-magnet in circuit with an electro-magnetic tuning-fork. It is used for recording tuning fork vibrations on a chronograph drum.

1902.  Westm. Gaz., 7 Feb., 2/2. The Bill … provides for a *time-notice of seven years to the holders of licences to sell liquor for consumption on the premises. Ibid. (1908), 23 March, 2/3. The Government proposal … gives a fourteen years’ time-notice for licences which until 1904 were granted for one year only.

1898.  Daily News, 5 Dec., 6/6. This *time payment system is far too much bother for me, and I look on it as undignified for our trade.

1848.  Arnould, Mar. Insur., I. v. (1866), I. 219. A *time policy is one in which the limits of the risk are designated only by certain fixed periods of time.

1895.  Kennedy, in Law Times Rep., LXXII. 861/1. The policy is a time policy for six months from the 9th Jan. 1894 to the 8th July 1894.

1882.  Minchin, Unipl. Kinemat., 60. The *time-rate of description of area round the fixed centre is constant in all positions of the moving point.

1902.  Eliz. L. Banks, Newspaper Girl, 263. We always pay the expenses and time rates when you go off on a job like that.

1898.  Engin. Mag., XVI. 41. Workmen use a mechanical *time-recorder requiring the vibration of a lever on entering and leaving the shop.

1893.  Westm. Gaz., 7 July, 5/1. An elegantly printed *time-sheet had been laid on the table for the use of the Duke and Princess.

1907.  Daily Chron., 3 May, 9/2. A light folding quarter-plate camera, with good lens, *time and instantaneous shutter.

1877.  Knight, Dict. Mech., s.v., The electro-magnetic telegraph has been used for operating *time-signals…; thus, the Greenwich time is indicated at Liverpool … by the dropping of a ball.

1875.  Stainer & Barrett, Dict. Mus. Terms, s.v. Signature, There are two kinds of signature, the *time-signature and the key-signature…. It would be more proper to call the time-signature the measure-sign, as it shows the contents of a bar, but not the pace at which the music should be performed.

1630–56.  Gordon, Hist. Earld. Sutherld. (1813), 325. That *tyme-takers wold be now easalie decerned from true freinds.

1867.  Livingstone, in Blaikie, Life, xix. (1910), 323. His time-taker had no conscience and could not be trusted.

1838.  Dickens, Nich. Nick., i. Mr. Nickleby … was a slow and *time-taking speaker.

1809.  Roland, Fencing, 81. To leave his body exposed to receive, in the interim of his motion, a *time thrust.

1834.  Encycl. Brit. (ed. 7), IX. 503. Time thrusts are so called because the success of these movements depends entirely upon their being executed at the exact moment of time employed by the adversary in planning or in executing his attack. Ibid., Passim.

1889.  Fencing (Badm. Libr.), 91. The time-thrust is an attack made with opposition on a complicated attack, and intended to intercept the line where such an attack is meant to finish.

1859.  Sala, Tw. round Clock (1861), 175. You never see these ghostly *time-waiters anywhere but on ’Change, and out of ’Change hours.

1899.  Globe, 30 June. During the debate Mr. Courtney call’d himself first a Liberal Unionist and then a Time-waiter.

1829.  Bentham, Justice & Cod. Petit., More Abr. Petit. Justice, 3. He is paid according to the time during which he is occupied … in doing the work: this is called … *time work.

1910.  Edinb. Rev., Jan., 12. The advantages which piecework has over timework are more completely secured.

1906.  Outlook, 9 June, 774/1. To move the Observatory … would involve the adoption of a new starting-point for the meridians of longitude and for the *time-zones into which the world is divided.