Pa. t. and pple. timed. [f. TIME sb.: cf. OE. ʓetímian to happen, befall. In sense 1. app. substituted for TIDE v.1, when time sb. was superseding tide.]
I. † 1. intr. To befall, to happen; = TIDE v.1 1. Impers. or with subject it. (Perf. with be.)
c. 1205. Lay., 27978. Þa wes hit itimed [c. 1275 ifunde] þere þat Merlin side while.
c. 1230. Hali Meid., 35. Ofte hit timeð þat tat leoueste bearn … sorheð & sweameð meast his ealdren on ende.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 3820. Do we us alle in godes red, Vs sal timen ðe betre sped.
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 5433. Þe same sey i be þe, so me wel time.
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 3150. In-to Tuskane he tournez, whene thus wele tymede.
† b. intr. To fare (well or ill); spec. to fare well, prosper. Obs.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 1023. Bi ðan sal sarra selðe timen Ðat ȝe [= she] sal of a sune trimen. Ibid., 3392. Amalech fleȝ, and israel Hadde heȝere hond, and timede wel. Ibid., 4024. Ðis folc … Is vnder god timed wel.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., ii. 26. God gif you ill to tyme!
II. 2. trans. To appoint or arrange the time of (an action or event); to choose the moment or occasion for. Usually (in context), to do (a thing) at the right time; ‘to adapt to the time’ (J.).
13[?]. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 2241. Þou hatz tymed þi trauayl as true mon schulde.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 490/1. Tymyn, or make in tyme (and) in seson, temporo.
1625. Bacon, Ess., Of Delays (Arb.), 525. There is surely no greater Wisedome, then well to time the Beginnings, and Onsets of Things.
a. 1708. Beveridge, Thes. Theol. (1710), II. 329. To teach us to submit to His wisdom … in timing all things.
1786. Mme. D’Arblay, Diary, 6 Oct. This visit was not so timed as to compose me.
1802. Mar. Edgeworth, Moral T., Forester, iii. Pray let me go to sleep … and time your explanations a little better.
1821. Scott, Kenilw., xvi. ‘Why, how now, Bowyer,’ said Elizabeth, ‘thy courtesy seems strangely timed!’
1865. Kingsley, Herew., v. They had timed their journey by the tides.
1884. W. J. Courthope, Addison, v. 113. Nothing could have been better timed than the appearance of the Spectator.
b. To arrange the time of arrival of (a train, a ship, etc.); hence, to regulate the rate of travelling of; also, to calculate or judge the moment of impact of (a ball or moving body).
1861. Times, 22 Aug., 18/6. The Royal train was timed to reach Leamington at 1 17 p.m., and stay there for 20 minutes.
1866. Routledge’s Ev. Boy’s Ann., 356. Educating, so to speak, his eye to time the ball correctly.
1880. Newton, Serm. Boys & Girls (1881), 167. Not timing himself right … he met him just in the road.
1889. Acworth, Railw. Eng., 198. The best train each way … is timed at over 45 miles an hour. Ibid., 202. The Great Northern … timed their trains to Doncaster … in 6 minutes less.
1890. Punch, 12 July, 15. Special trains, timed to take at least half-an-hour longer.
1893. [see TIMING vbl. sb. 2].
c. To adjust (a clock, etc.) to keep accurate time.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mech., 504. The easy Timing of Watches by the Vibrations of the Pendulum.
1884. F. J. Britten, Watch & Clockm., 264. [A] Timing Box [is] a brass box for the reception of an uncased watch movement while it is being timed.
Mod. Your watch is finished, but has not been exactly timed yet.
3. To mark the rhythm or measure of, as in music; to sing or play (an air or instrument) in (good or bad) time. Also fig.
c. 1500. in Grose, etc., Antiq. Rep. (1809), IV. 408. Yet rationalis lingua expellit instrumentis all, Wel tymede and tewnede.
1602. Marston, Ant. & Mel., V. If that thou canst not give, goe hang thy selfe: Ile time thee dead, or verse thee to the rope.
1607. Shaks., Cor., II. ii. 114. He was a thing of Blood, whose euery motion Was tim’d with dying Cryes.
a. 1711. [see TIMING vbl. sb. 2].
1837. Lockhart, Scott, March, an. 1815. He then … joined with a stentorian voice in the cheering, which the Prince himself timed.
b. To set the time of; to cause to coincide in time with something (const. to).
1655. H. Vaughan, Silex Scint., Isaac’s Marr., 67. Others were tym’d and train’d up to ’t.
a. 1719. Addison, trans. Ovid, III. Mariners Transf. Dolphins, 52. Old Epopeus … Who over-look’d the oars, and tim’d the stroke.
1725. Pope, Odyss., VII. 419. How fleet our sail, When justly tim’d with equal sweep they row.
1805. Southey, Madoc in W., xvii. Hark! ’tis the mariners with voice attuned Timing their toil!
1808. Scott, Marm., I. ii. Timing his footsteps to a march, The warder kept his guard.
1871. Tyndall, Fragm. Sc. (1879), I. vi. 197. Timing the pull to the lurching of the ship.
c. intr. To keep time to; to sound or move in unison or harmony with.
1850. Whittier, Elliott, iv. Timing to their stormy sounds, His stormy lays are sung.
1855. Tennyson, Maud, I. xviii. 8. Beat, happy stars, timing with things below, Beat with my heart more blest than heart can tell.
a. 1892. Whitman, Out of Cradle, 8. The savage old mother, incessantly crying, To the boy’s soul’s questions sullenly timing.
† 4. trans. To ‘give’ or tell the time to (any one). Obs. rare.
1583. Melbancke, Philotimus, C ij. The fyre to warme thee, the scortching of the sunne: thy clocke to time thee, the scritching of ye owle.
5. To fix the duration of; to assign the metrical quantity of (a syllable) or the duration of (a note); also, to regulate the operation or action of (a mechanism, etc.) as to duration (see also 7).
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, II. xii[i]. (Arb.), 131. It could not possible be by vs perfourmed, because their sillables came to be timed some of them long, some of them short.
1597. [see TIMING vbl. sb. 2].
1835. Fraser’s Mag., XII. 416. Lamarck has defined nature to be motion, and law, and space, and time, without reference to a being moving or moved, legislating or legislated upon, and timing or spacing, or being timed and spaced.
1885. Manch. Exam., 12 Jan., 5/2. The clockwork apparatus, timed to run for two hours.
1893. J. A. Hodges, Elem. Photogr. (1907), 58. If we have correctly timed our exposure.
† b. To time it out, to procrastinate, delay, spin out the time. Obs.
1613. Daniel, Coll. Hist. Eng., 81. They timed it out all that Spring, and a great part of the next Sommer.
a. 1649. Drumm. of Hawth., Hist. Jas. II., Wks. (1711), 32. Others advised him … to time it out a while: in this lingring war a truce might be agreed upon.
6. To ascertain or note the time at which (something) is done or happens; to note the time occupied by or the duration of (an action, etc.).
1670. Milton, Hist. Eng., IV. Wks. (1847), 527/2. So different they often are one from another, both in timing and in naming.
1692. Norris, Curs. Refl., 19. The Question will be concerning the Timing of it, whether any of these Impressions be Original Characters or no.
1723–4. Dk. Wharton, True Briton, No. 71. II. 602. The Timing of the subsequent Piece obliges us to insert the following Letter.
1859. Lang, Wand. India, 393. Slowly as he read, it was over in twelve minutes, for I timed him.
1878. Browning, La Saisiaz, 193. We who, darkling, timed the day’s birth.
1896. Daily News, 13 Jan., 8/2. Another letter … timed 9 p.m. states that during the night of the 8th and 9th inst. the Shoans made an attack by surprise.
1907. Academy, 14 Sept., 885/2. He does not believe in what he cannot see, or time, or measure, or weigh.
7. Mech. To adjust the parts of (a mechanism) so that a succession of movements or operations takes place at the required intervals and in the desired sequence; to arrange the time of (an operation) in a mechanical cycle or series.
1895. in Funk’s Stand. Dict.
1898. Engineering Mag., XVI. 108/1. When … a timing valve is used, instead of permitting the ignition to be timed by the compression.
8. Fencing. = To take the time (TIME sb. 21, quot. 1809).
1809. Roland, Fencing, 109. The too frequent practice of timing their adversary, because they will render their modes of play … very disagreeable to each other.
1889. Dunn, Fencing, 83. There is always a large element of risk in timing.
9. To time out: to parcel out or apportion (a space of time). Cf. to space out.
1902. Fortn. Rev., June, 1036. When a man is always timing out his day, and dovetailing together the duties which compose his daily life.
