Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who works or is engaged in doing something only half the usual or allotted time; specifically, in Great Britain, a pupil in an elementary school who is entitled to partial exemption from attendance while engaged in some proper employment.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • When I joined CNET as a half-timer I realized that the pace of an Internet company was such that I needed to be in the office every day, from 8:30 to 5:30.

    Naked in the Boardroom Robin Wolaner 2005

  • In the textile works of Messrs. Baxter Brothers & Company she became what was known as a half-timer, one who wrought half the day and went to the school in connection with the works the other half.

    Mary Slessor of Calabar: Pioneer Missionary W. P. Livingstone

  • "I shall be glad when he's schoolin's over," the mother said; and she had applied for a "labour certificate" which would allow him to finish school as a "half-timer," and to go out and earn a little money.

    Change in the Village George Sturt 1895

  • The death of Jones, half-timer as he is, would plunge them into it; and the breakdown or death of Mrs. Jones would plunge them deeper still.

    London's Underworld Thomas Holmes 1882

  • Those very qualities of narrowly restricted care and judgment, detailed attention, regularity and patience, which we see to be characteristic of machine work, are common human qualities in the sense that they are within the capacity of all, and that even in the degree of their development and practice there is less difference between the highly-trained adult mechanic and the raw "half-timer" than in the development and practice of such powers as machinery has superseded.

    The Evolution of Modern Capitalism A Study of Machine Production 1899

  • “There’s a see-and-be-seen aspect to this where your existence is somewhat validated by being seen with people that are perceived as being important,” said Washington Post/CNN half-timer Howard Kurtz.

    Curse of the D.C. Swamp Creatures 2008

  • “There’s a see-and-be-seen aspect to this where your existence is somewhat validated by being seen with people that are perceived as being important,” said Washington Post/CNN half-timer Howard Kurtz.

    Curse of the D.C. Swamp Creatures 2008

  • On any day that you could honestly be only a half-timer, you are far less likely to get careless, and to despair of regularity, if you get a bit of your day's subject, than if you have to leave one of your subjects entirely undone. "

    Stray Thoughts for Girls Lucy H. M. Soulsby

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