Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One of the four or five grand divisions of geologic history, namely, Archæean, Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic time: by some a fifth division, Psychozoic time, is added. In more recent usage ‘era’ has been substituted for ‘time.’
  • noun Seemarch.
  • noun To gain time by extra speed, as a train or boat
  • noun With qualifiers, to maintain a certain speed: as, we made good time; the motor-car made poor time up the hill.
  • noun The system of those relations which any event has to any other as past, present, or future.
  • noun A part of time considered as distinct from other parts; a period; a space of time: as a short time; a long time; too little time was allowed; hence, season; particular period: as, summer-time; springtime.
  • noun A part of time considered as distinct from other parts, whether past, present, or future, and particularly as characterized by the occurrence of some event or series of events; especially, the period in which some notable person, or the person under consideration, lived or was active; age; epoch; as, the time of the flood, of Abraham, or of Moses: often in the plural; as, the times of the Pharaohs.
  • noun Appointed, allotted, or customary period of years, months, days, hours, etc.
  • noun The space of time needed or occupied in the completion of some course; the interval that elapses between the beginning and the end of something: as, the time between New York and Queenstown is now about six days; the race finished at noon: time, three hours and seven minutes.
  • noun The period of gestation; also, the natural termination of that period.
  • noun The period of an apprenticeship, or of some similarly definite engagement: as, the boy served his time with A. B.; to be out of one's time (that is, to cease being an apprentice, be a journeyman).
  • noun A term of imprisonment: as to do time in the penitentiary.
  • noun Available or disposable part or period of duration; leisure; sufficiency or convenience of time; hence, opportunity: as, to give one time to finish his remark; to have no time for such things; to ask for time.
  • noun A suitable or appropriate point or part of time; fitting season: as, a time for everything; a time to weep and a time to laugh.
  • noun Particular or definite point of time; precise hour or moment: as, the time of day; what is the time? choose your own time.
  • noun An appointed, fixed, or inevitable point or moment of time; especially, the hour of one's departure or death.
  • noun A mode of occupying time; also, what occurs in a particular time.
  • noun The state of things at a particular point of time; prevailing state of circumstances: generally in the plural: as, hard times.
  • noun All time to come; the future.
  • noun Reckoning, or method of reckoning, the lapse or course of time: with a qualifying word: as, standard time; mean time; solar or sidereal time.
  • noun Recurrent instance or occasion: as, many a time has he stood there; hence, a repeated item or sum; a single addition or involution in reckoning; repetition: as, four times four (four repetitions of four).
  • noun Tune; measure.
  • noun In music: Same as rhythm: as, duple time; triple time; common time.
  • noun Same as duration, especially in metrical relations: as, to hold a tone its full time.
  • noun Same as tempo: as, to sing a song in quick time.
  • noun The general movement of a form of composition or of a particular piece, involving its rhythm, its general metrical structure, and its characteristic tempo.
  • noun In prosody, relative duration of utterance as measuring metrical composition; a unit of rhythmic measurement, or a group or succession of such units, applicable to or expressed in language.
  • noun In phrenology, one of the perceptive faculties.
  • noun One of the three dramatic unities formerly considered essential in the classical drama.
  • noun In fencing, a division of a movement. ; ;
  • noun A pleasant or enjoyable period or experience: also a fine time: often used ironically.
  • noun In music. See common.
  • noun Well and good; just so; very well.
  • noun In the course of things; by degrees; eventually.
  • noun The latest aspect of affairs.
  • noun For an indefinitely long period.
  • noun In music, to beat, mark, or observe the rhythmic accents.
  • noun To move in unison, as persons walking.
  • noun To go too slow: as, a watch or clock loses time.
  • noun Synonyms Term, while, interval.
  • To adapt to the time or occasion; bring, begin, or perform at the proper season or time.
  • To regulate as to time.
  • To ascertain the time, duration, or rate of: as, to time the speed of a horse; to time a race.
  • To measure, as in music or harmony.
  • To waste time; defer; procrastinate.
  • To keep time; harmonize.
  • In fencing, to make a thrust upon an opening occurring by an inaccurate or wide motion of the opponent.
  • noun An obsolete spelling of thyme.
  • To adjust the elements of (a motor or other machine) so that the succession of events in a cycle, or a revolution, or a process shall take place at the desired intervals, or in the desired sequence. It involves an adjustment of the mechanism so that the actuating cams or other elements shall have a necessary angular relation to each other in a revolution or in a series of revolutions.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Duration, considered independently of any system of measurement or any employment of terms which designate limited portions thereof.

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