time
/taɪm/ noun, verb, interjection
- noun (uncountable) The inevitable progression into the future with the passing of present and past events. “Time stops for nobody. the ebb and flow of time”
- noun (uncountable) The feeling of the passage of events and their relative duration, as experienced by an individual. “Time flies when you're having fun.”
- noun (physics, usually uncountable) A dimension of spacetime with the opposite metric signature to space dimensions; the fourth dimension. “Both science-fiction writers and physicists have written about travel through time.”
- noun (physics, uncountable) Change associated with the second law of thermodynamics; the physical and psychological result of increasing entropy. “Time slows down when you approach the speed of light.”
- noun (physics, uncountable, reductionist definition) The property of a system which allows it to have more than one distinct configuration. “An essential definition of time should entail neither speed nor direction, just change.”
- noun (uncountable) A quantity of availability of duration. “More time is needed to complete the project.”
- noun (countable) A measurement of a quantity of time; a numerical or general indication of a length of progression. “a long time”
- noun (uncountable, slang) The serving of a prison sentence. “The judge leniently granted a sentence with no hard time.”
- verb (transitive) To measure or record the time, duration, or rate of something. “I used a stopwatch to time myself running around the block.”
- verb (transitive) To choose when something commences or its duration. “The President timed his speech badly, coinciding with the Super Bowl.”
- verb (obsolete) To keep or beat time; to proceed or move in time.
- verb (obsolete) To pass time; to delay.
- verb To regulate as to time; to accompany, or agree with, in time of movement.
- verb To measure, as in music or harmony.
- interjection (tennis) Reminder by the umpire for the players to continue playing after their pause.
- interjection The umpire's call in prizefights, etc.
- interjection A call by a bartender to warn patrons that the establishment is closing and no more drinks will be served. “Time gentlemen please!”
Synonyms
instant juncture minute moment occasion point in time sith tense ages long set clock clip clock time fourth dimension meter metre prison term sentence
Etymology
From Middle English tyme, time, from Old English tīma (“time, period, space of time, season, lifetime, fixed time, favorable time, opportunity”), from Proto-West Germanic *tīmō, from Proto-Germanic *tīmô (“time”), from Proto-Indo-European *deh₂imō, from Proto-Indo-European *deh₂y- (“to divide”). Related to tide. Not related to Latin tempus.
* Scots tym, tyme (“time”)
* Alemannic German Zimen, Zīmmän (“time, time of the year, opportune time, opportunity”)
* Danish time (“hour, lesson”)
* Elfdalian taime (“hour”)
* Faroese tími (“hour, lesson, time”)
* Icelandic tími (“time, season”)
* Norwegian time (“lesson, hour”)
* Swedish timma, timme (“hour”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun Duration, considered independently of any system of measurement or any employment of terms which designate limited portions thereof.
- noun A particular period or part of duration, whether past, present, or future; a point or portion of duration; as, the time was, or has been; the time is, or will be. God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets. Heb. i. 1.
- verb To appoint the time for; to bring, begin, or perform at the proper season or time; as, he timed his appearance rightly.
- verb To regulate as to time; to accompany, or agree with, in time of movement.
Etymology [OE. time, AS. tima, akin to tid time, and to Icel. timi, Dan. time an hour, Sw. timme. *58. See Tide, n.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “time”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details