Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • phrase time flies (used as an alternative to this phrase).
  • phrase "Meanwhile, the irreplaceable time escapes", expressing concern that one's limited time is being consumed by something which may have little intrinsic substance or importance at that moment.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Borrowed from Latin, from the verse Georgica which was written by the Roman poet Virgil which is sed fugit interea fugit irreparabile tempus ("but it flees meanwhile: irretrievable time flees") which has the less literal translation "while, the irreplaceable time escapes".

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Examples

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Comments

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  • Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

    June 19, 2007

  • “You can barely see the gears in the timepiece actually moving — none of that tempus fugit nonsense often ascribed to working clocks.�?

    The New York Times, How the Railroads Took Control of Time, by Alan Feuer, September 16, 2009

    September 17, 2009