Definition of: time

(tīm) noun
1. The general idea, relation, or fact of continuous or successive existence; infinite duration or its measure.
2. A definite portion of duration; a moment; period; season.
3. A considerable period marked off by some special characteristics; era.
4. The portion of duration allotted to some specific purpose, as that allotted to human life or to any particular life, military service, a prison sentence, etc.
5. The length of an apprenticeship.
6. Period of gestation.
7. A portion of duration available or sufficient for, or allotted to, some special purpose or event; also, leisure: I have no time to read.
8. Indefinite duration viewed in the concrete as measurable and terminable, but not precisely limited: You build for time, we for eternity.
9. A general term indicating a subdivision of one of the grander divisions of geological history.
10. A point in duration; date; occasion; especially, the hour of death or of travail: Your time has come!
11. A portion of duration considered as having some quality or experience of its own, personal or general: in the latter sense usually in the plural: Times are hard.
12. A system of reckoning or measuring duration, especially with reference to the rotation and revolution of the earth, or to the movements of the celestial bodies. See also DAYLIGHT–SAVING TIME, STANDARD TIME, and lists given below.
13. A case of recurrence or repetition: many a time, three times a day.
14. The temporal relation of a verb.
15. Music a The characteristic tempo suited to a particular style of composition. b The division of musical composition into measures of equal length; rhythm: common time, triple time. Rhythms which are divisible by two are called duple or common time, as 2/2, 2/4, 2/8, 4/2, 4/4, 4/8, etc. Rhythms which are divisible by three are called triple time, as 3/2, 3/4, 3/8. Compound triple times are 9/4, 9/8, 9/16, 5/4, and 5/8.
16. A measured interval in verse; a unit of duration in rhythmical utterance; a mora.
17. One of the Aristotelian unities of the drama. See under UNITY.
18. Period during which work has been, or remains to be done; also, the amount of pay due one, especially on an hourly rate: time and a half for overtime.
19. Rate of movement, as in dancing, marching, etc.; tempo.
20. plural In arithmetic, the fact or process of being multiplied or added to or by: Five times four is twenty; also, the multiplication sign x.
21. Fit or proper occasion: This is no time to quibble.
—at the same time
1. At the same moment.
2. Despite that; however; nevertheless.
—at times Now and then.
—to bring to time To call to account; discipline; force to conform.
—to have a time To experience unusual pleasure, difficulty, etc.
—high time The expiration of, or a time past the expiration of, a period of which something should have been accomplished.
—in time
1. While time permits or lasts; before it is too late.
2. In the progress of time; ultimately.
—to keep time
1. To indicate time correctly, as a clock; run in time, as a train.
2. To make regular or rhythmic movements in unison with another or others.
3. To render a musical composition in proper time or rhythm.
4. To make a record of the number of hours worked by an employee or employees.
—to make a time To make a fuss or to–do.
—to make time
1. To gain time; especially, to make up for lost time by extra speed, as a train.
2. To perform, achieve, or arrive in a certain time: to make good time.
3. Slang To impress or influence favorably: with with.
—on time
1. Promptly; according to schedule: The train left on time.
2. Paid for, or to be paid for, later or in instalments.
—adjective
1. Of or pertaining to time.
2. Devised so as to operate, explode, etc., at a specified time: a time bomb, time lock.
3. Payable at, or to be paid for at, a future date.
—v.t. timed, tim·ing
1. To regulate as to time.
2. To cause to correspond in time: They timed their steps to the music.
3. To choose or arrange the time or occasion for: He timed his arrival for five o'clock.
4. To mark the rhythm or measure of.
5. To assign metrical or rhythmic qualities to (a syllable or note).
6. To ascertain or record the speed or duration of: to time a horse or a race. [OE tīma]
—astronomical time
Prior to Jan. 1, 1925, the 24–hour period reckoned from noon to noon: since that date reckoned from midnight to midnight in order to bring civil and navigational practice into conformity with each other.
—civil time (or civil day)
The 24–hour period extending from midnight to midnight: generally divided into two sections of 12 hours each, but in navigation, aeronautics, and other technical uses reckoned from o (midnight) to 24 hours. The same reckoning now applies to astronomical time.
—Greenwich mean time
See CIVIL TIME.
—Greenwich time
Time as reckoned from the zero meridian of Greenwich, England. To each hour in advance of, or behind, Greenwich time there corresponds a difference of 15 degrees longitude east or west of the Greenwich meridian.
—local time
Time, whether sidereal or solar, as reckoned from a local meridian other than the standard meridian.
—mean time
Time reckoned from the hour angle of the mean sun; the mean solar day is the 24–hour interval between two successive lower transits of the mean sun across the meridian of a place and corresponds exactly with civil time.
—sidereal time
Time computed from the hour angle of a fixed point on the celestial sphere known as the first point in Aries, coincident with the vernal equinox; the sidereal day is the interval between two successive upper transits of the vernal equinox across the meridian.
—solar time
Time reckoned from the hour angle of the central point of the sun's disk; the apparent solar day is the slightly variable interval between two successive lower transits of the sun across the meridian of a place, noon being the moment of upper transit or the hour angle plus 12 hours.
—zone time
Time corresponding to that within a zone of 7 1/2 degrees on either side of a meridian; used in the determination of a ship's longitude. Synonyms (noun): age, date, duration, epoch, era, period, season, sequence, succession. Sequence and succession apply to events viewed as following one another; time and duration denote something conceived of as enduring while events take place and acts are done. According to the necessary conditions of human thought, events are contained in time as objects are in space, time existing before the event, measuring it as it passes, and still existing when the event is past. Duration and succession are more general words than time; we can speak of infinite or eternal duration or succession, but time is commonly contrasted with eternity. Time is measured or measurable duration.