Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A nonspatial continuum in which events occur in apparently irreversible succession from the past through the present to the future.
  • noun An interval separating two points on this continuum; a duration.
  • noun A number, as of years, days, or minutes, representing such an interval.
  • noun A similar number representing a specific point on this continuum, reckoned in hours and minutes.
  • noun A system by which such intervals are measured or such numbers are reckoned.
  • noun An interval, especially a span of years, marked by similar events, conditions, or phenomena; an era.
  • noun The present with respect to prevailing conditions and trends.
  • noun A suitable or opportune moment or season.
  • noun Periods or a period designated for a given activity.
  • noun Periods or a period necessary or available for a given activity.
  • noun A period at one's disposal.
  • noun An appointed or fated moment, especially of death or giving birth.
  • noun One of several instances.
  • noun Used to indicate the number of instances by which something is multiplied or divided.
  • noun One's lifetime.
  • noun One's period of greatest activity or engagement.
  • noun A person's experience during a specific period or on a certain occasion.
  • noun A period of military service.
  • noun A period of apprenticeship.
  • noun Informal A prison sentence.
  • noun The customary period of work.
  • noun The period spent working.
  • noun The hourly pay rate.
  • noun The period during which a radio or television program or commercial is broadcast.
  • noun The rate of speed of a measured activity.
  • noun The meter of a musical pattern.
  • noun The rate of speed at which a piece of music is played; the tempo.
  • noun Chiefly British The hour at which a pub closes.
  • noun Sports A time-out.
  • adjective Of, relating to, or measuring time.
  • adjective Constructed so as to operate at a particular moment.
  • adjective Payable on a future date or dates.
  • adjective Of or relating to installment buying.
  • transitive verb To set the time for (an event or occasion).
  • transitive verb To adjust to keep accurate time.
  • transitive verb To adjust so that a force is applied or an action occurs at the desired time.
  • transitive verb To record the speed or duration of.
  • transitive verb To set or maintain the tempo, speed, or duration of.
  • transitive verb To speculate based on the anticipated short-term performance of (a market).
  • idiom (against time) With a quickly approaching time limit.
  • idiom (any time) Used to acknowledge an expression of gratitude.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English tīma; see dā- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English time, tyme, from Old English tīma ("time, period, space of time, season, lifetime, fixed time, favorable time, opportunity"), from Proto-Germanic *tīmô (“time”), from Proto-Indo-European *dī- (“time”). Cognate with Scots tym, tyme ("time"), Alemannic German Zimen, Zīmmän ("time, time of the year, opportune time, opportunity"), Danish time ("stound, hour, lesson"), Swedish timme ("stound, hour"), Norwegian time ("time, stound, hour"), Faroese tími ("hour, lesson, time"), Icelandic tími ("time, season"). See also tide.

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Examples

Comments

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  • Emit in reverse.

    July 22, 2007

  • I wasted time, and now doth time waste me. 1913 SHAKS.: Richard II., Act v., Sc. 5.

    February 27, 2008

  • “You don’t get past it, it just becomes part of who you are.”

    —Echo/Rebecca in Dollhouse season 2 episode 8

    December 13, 2009

  • I like this definition: "A nonspatial continuum in which events occur in apparently irreversible succession from the past through the present to the future."

    February 13, 2010

  • miao.

    September 8, 2010

  • Ha!

    September 8, 2010

  • "We watch our loved ones age and die, and we assume that an external entity called time is responsible for the crime. But experiments increasingly cast doubt on the existence of time as we know it. In fact, the reality of time has long been questioned by philosophers and physicists. When we speak of time, we're usually referring to change. But change isn't the same thing as time."

    --The Huffington Post, Is Death the End? Experiments Suggest You Create Time, by Robert Lanza, M.D., November 4, 2010.

    November 6, 2010

  • bilby's link is borked. :(

    November 7, 2010